The events of war are uncertain, and there has been much talk of forfeited estates:-poor deluded highlanders, who are now our prisoners, were enlisted under assurance of getting possession of our farms, plantations, and town estates. Hessians and Hanoverians, and other foreign troops, have been bought by similar promises, and no doubt some of them will fight strong for the spoil. Negro slaves and barbarous Indians have been taught to exclaim, "Down with the Americans; and their estates will be free plunder!" Thus cruelly beset, howbeit, my heart neither fails nor misgives me; I see it my duty to guard against every thing which may happen, and to sound repeated warnings to those who are dearer to me, and of more value to the world, than my life.

You will take care of my Polly too. I need not tell you to be dutiful to your uncle and aunt; to love and reverence them as tender parents. They may be reduced to very great straits. There my heart is most wrung; but I must forbear; the subject overpowers me; God, in whom I trust, will protect you all. Adieu, my dear daughter, write as often as you can, and in some measure lessen the anxiety which arises from the uncertainty of your being restored to your faithful friend, your affectionate father,

HENRY LAURENS.

APPENDIX, No. II.

RELIGIOUS EXERCISES.

Thursday, Dec. 23, 1773.

BEING THIS DAY FOURTEEN YEARS AND SEVEN WEEKS OLD.

I Do this day, after full consideration, and se rious deliberation, and after earnest prayer for the assistance of Divine Grace, resolve to surrender and devote my youth, my strength, my soul, with all I have, and all I am, to the service of that great and good God, who has preserved and kept me all my life until now, and who in infinite compassion has given me to see the folly of my ways, and by faith to lay hold on a dear Redeemer, and obtain peace to my soul through his precious blood.

MARTHA Laurens

A SELF DEDICATION AND SOLEMN COVENANT

WITH GOD.

ETERNAL and unchangeable Jehovah!-Thou great Creator of heaven and earth!-And adorable Lord of angels and men!-I desire, with the deepest humiliation and abasement of soul, to fall down at this time in thine awful presence, and earnestly pray that thou wilt penetrate my very heart and soul with a suitable sense of thine unutterable and inconceivable glories! Trembling may justly lay hold upon me, when I, a sinful worm, presume to lift up my head to thee, presume to appear in thy majestic presence, on such an occasion as this.

If

Who am I, Oh Lord God, or what is my house? What is my nature or descent, my character and desert, that I should speak of this, and desire that I may be one party in a covenant, where thou, the King of kings and Lord of lords, art the other? I blush, and am confounded, even to mention it before thee. But, Oh Lord, great as is thy majesty, so also is thy mercy. thou wilt hold converse with any of thy creatures, thy superlatively exalted nature, must stoop, must stoop infinitely low; and I know, that in and through Jesus the Son of thy love, thou condescendest to visit sinful mortals, and to allow their approach to thee, and their covenant intercourse with thee. Nay, I know

that the scheme and plan is thine own, and that thou hast graciously sent to propose it to us; as none untaught by thee would have been able to form it, or inclined to embrace it even when actually proposed. To thee, therefore, do I now come, invited by the name of thy Son, and trusting in his righteousness and grace; laying myself at thy feet with shame and confusion of face, and smiting upon my breast, I say with the humble publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner." I acknowledge, Lord, I have been a great transgressor. My sins have reached unto Heaven, and mine iniquities are lifted up unto the skies. The irregular propensities of my corrupt and degenerate nature have, in ten thousand aggravated instances, wrought to bring forth fruit unto death. And if thou shouldst be strict to mark mine offences, I must be silent under a load of guilt, and immediately sink into destruction. But thou hast graciously called me to return unto thee, though I have been a wandering sheep, a prodigal daughter, a backsliding child. Behold, therefore, O Lord, I come unto thee.I come, convinced not only of my sin but of my folly.-I come from my very heart ashamed of myself, and with sincerity and humility confess that I have erred exceedingly. I am confounded with the remembrance of these things ; but be thou merciful to my unrighteousness, and do not remember against me my sins and my

transgressions. Permit me, Oh Lord! to bring back unto thee those powers and faculties, which I have ungratefully and sacrilegiously alienated from thy service, and receive, I beseech thee, thy poor perverted creature, who is now convinced of the right thou hast to her, and desires nothing in the whole earth so much as to be truly thine! Blessed God! it is with the utmost solemnity that I make this surrender of myself to thee. Hear, Oh Heavens! and give ear, O earth! I avouch the Lord to be my God. I avouch and declare myself this day, to be one of his covenant people. Hear, Oh thou God of Heaven! and record it in the book of thy remembrance, that henceforth I am thine, entirely thine. I would not merely consecrate unto thee some of my powers, or some of my possessions, or give thee a certain proportion of my services, or all I am capable of for a limited time; but I would be wholly thine, and thine for ever. From this day do I solemnly renounce all the former lords which have had dominion over me; every sin and every lust, and bid in thy name an eternal defiance to the powers of hell, which have most unjustly usurped the empire over my soul, and to all the corruptions which their fatal temptations have introduced into it. The whole frame of my nature, all the faculties of my mind, all the members of my body, would I present