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found they could not prove. As I went home meditating on the discourse, I said, 'This man seems to know something of what I feel; I will go and hear him again.' When I got home, I said thus to my wife; I believe the Lord has directed me to a man that knows something about my distress, for he seemed to speak a little about it. She asked, Where is it, and who is he? I said his name is Huntington, and it is as far as Oxford Market, and I should go again in the evening; she was in a pet about it, and said, You shall not drag me so far to hear I do not know who. However I was determined to go; and come I did, bringing her with me; and, blessed be the Lord, he never let us go back; he was pleased to give me a hearing ear, so that I perceived I was not harassed with those temptations under the word preached as I had been. I thought for some weeks that you preached to none but me, describing my state so, that at last it all came out; the Lord blessed it to my soul, I was set at liberty again, peace was proclaimed, you was made manifest in my conscience, and I rejoiced again in the light of God's countenance. I blessed the Lord, that ever he brought me under your ministry, I thanked him night and day; I could then see you was the pastor the Lord had promised to give

me.

Now began persecution: but, bless the Lord, I have often admired his tender goodness in this thing. He would not suffer them to speak to me

till he was pleased to speak peace to my soul again: and those of Mr. W-- -'s chapel not only persecuted me openly, but imagined lies in their heart; for they told me I left his chapel on purpose to live in sin. Mr. W. himself told me I was got into the Huntingtonian's easy chair, but I should find a difference on a death-bed. I sent them word, I would meet the church at any time to prove all they said was false; but they never sent for me, so gave me up, watching for my fall: but, blessed be the Lord, he has kept me by his mighty power to this day, and has given me to see some of those that were counted pillars among them turn their back on Jesus; but I know it is by his grace I am kept to the present moment, as one of the vilest of poor sinners saved. This experience brought me to know God's faithfulness to his chosen, for I proved him so in that furnace.

Soon after this my love waxed cold, and I began to crave after this world's goods; I thought, if I could get a little beforehand by honest industry, it was no more than right. I set to with a willing mind, as I thought, and not without prayer to God neither. I went in search for something: a chandler's shop offered, and money to be lent me to set up. My mind was set upon it. I went to the Lord, and prayed, if it was not his will, by no means to let me have it; and went to him often too: but I must confess, though I prayed against it if it was not his will, yet my heart was for it; and the Lord, who is the searcher

of all hearts, knew that I desired to have it, and he let me have it to my sorrow; for I strove hard, and meant well, but the Lord's hand went out against me in all that I undertook; and I wondered at it, for I did not, as yet, see the snare; but experience brings us to a knowledge of these things; and I thank my dear Redeemer that ever he brought me in a way of experience, in anywise to know the cunning of Satan, and the proneness of my own heart to stray from the best of friends. I went on here, hoping things would be better; but I had lost my God, there was no communion, things got worse and worse; I was in debt and nothing to pay with; in that sense my prayers were shut out, no answer to my petitions, still all things going against us. Sometimes my wife and I would quarrel whose fault it was for coming there, for we were both in the mess; then would we fret one against the other: we would pray, but to no purpose. And here the Lord kept us till he made us as sensibly sick of it as ever poor creatures were in this world. Then he was pleased to humble us in the dust, and shewed us we had backslidden from him through covetousness and the ensnarement of the riches of this world, for my heart was after it; but his tender love to us would not let us go. Though he kept me close at his dear footstool a good while, confessing and praying for deliverance before it came, and would say to my poor soul, "Hast thou not procured these things to thyself?" Yes, Lord, I would cry,

I have, and beg thy pardoning mercy only to forgive thy poor worms, and deliver us out of this place; being ready to say, I never would be entangled in this way again: but the Lord knows how weak we are, and I see he will let us know it too; for, I believe, in less than a twelvemonth I was entangled in the same way again. But, after this deliverance, I went comfortably on for some time; the Lord blessed me under the word often, and many precious promises he was pleased to give me.

At this time there were three or four friends, as they were pleased to style themselves, came from the Mulberry Gardens chapel to spend the afternoon with me, to inquire into my profession, and what doctrines I held since I heard Mr. Huntington. They seemed greatly to pity me, and asked a great many questions, which the Lord enabled me to answer in a measure. I insisted on the Spirit's work, they upon free will. I told them of God's everlasting love to his chosen, and being kept by his mighty power. They said I must take the law, that is, the ten commandments, as my rule to walk by, though I was called by grace, or else I was an Antinomian (the meaning of the word Antinomian I was at this time ignorant of). Upon asking how I must go on in this way? They answered, I must walk in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ as near as I could. I told them, a man was a mere machine, for no longer than he is wrought upon by the Holy

Ghost can he do aught that is well-pleasing to God, for it is God must work in him to will and to do. This affronted my guests, and they persecuted me sadly; and one of their confederates wherreted me continually, till I hated her; she used to waylay me in the street as I came home at night from my work, till at last I looked to see if she was coming, and would have gone a mile out of the way rather than meet her. These words were brought to my mind, "The law worketh wrath." Ah, Lord! I would cry, there is no love; we cannot unite: but the devil (who is never backward to distress the poor creature that desires to be brought on in God's way) sets in, and would fain have represented these people to me as taught of God. Well, thought I, if they are right I must be wrong. But, bless the Lord, I was enabled to tell him all about it; and he soon set you to preach on it, and gave me to see I was right and they were wrong. However, the Lord was pleased to speak very comfortably to my soul before he put me into the furnace, and there the Lord shewed me what the law was. One day, at my work, he was pleased to lead my mind out in meditation about it, from what you preached the Sunday before. The Lord broke in upon my soul, and threw such light upon it, that I discovered where they all were that contended for the law as a rule for the believer to walk by: I could see they were all in bondage under it. And the Lord said to me, 'Such like pastors, such like

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