Select passages from the diary and letters of the late John Blackader, Esq.

1 7 1 1 .] col. blackader's papers, i 45
1 8. Marching this day. Alas, we for-
get that it is Sabbath, for there is nothing
like it to be feen, but the contrary, as it"
we were in hell, nothing around us but
the voice of incarnate devils, curling
and blaipheming.
April io. I went to Doway. I had a
ferene thankful frame of mind, fitting
alone in my chaife, by the way, medita-
ting on the goodnefs of God and his An-
gular mercies to me. But Providence
lets me fee that all our earthly enjoy-
ments are like Jonah's gourd ; there is a
worm at the root of them. I obferve,
that no fooner do I begin to reft or place
any pleafure or fatisfadion in any earthly
comfort, than "Providence gives fome
check, and lets me fee there is nothing
but vanity and emptinefs in all ; for
when I arrived at home, the chaife go-
ing in at the coach-houfe gate, by fome
accident ftartling the horfes, they broke
it in pieces. The very time that we are
hugging ourfelves in the conveniency and
pleafure of thefe kind of things, the Lord
is preparing a worm to gnaw and eat out
the comfort of them.
12. The armies are taking the field on
O