rience this deep anguish, that feeling the bitterness of sin, he might warn others more earnestly; and knowing the throes and travail of a sinner's soul, he might speak assuredly to the most despairing, of the power of Christ's Sacrifice, and of the indwelling consolations of the Spirit of God.-God appeared to have turned aside his ways, and pulled him to pieces;He had bent his bow, and made him a mark for His arrows: he was filled with bitterness, and made drunken as with wormwood:-his soul was removed far off from peace, and he forgat prosperity. Yet even here, though his stroke was heavier than his groaning, he could say, "It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed."-Lam. iii. 11-22. See him in his agony upon the bare ground, almost petrified with anguish, and dumb with grief! Reader, hast thou sinned? Hast thou repented? Hast thou peace with thy God, or art thou still in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity? These are solemn, yea, awful questions. May God enable thee to answer them to the safety of thy soul!

But we must return to him whom we have left in agonies indescribable. It is said, the time of man's extremity is the time of God's opportunity. He now felt strongly in his soul, Pray to Christ;-another word for, Come to the Holiest through the Blood of Jesus. He looked up confidently to the Saviour of sinners, his agony subsided, his soul became calm. A glow of happiness seemed to thrill through his whole frame, all guilt and condemnation were gone. He examined his conscience, and found it no longer a register of sins against God. He looked to heaven, and all was sunshine; he searched for his distress, but could not find it. He felt indescribably happy, but could not tell the cause ;—a change had taken place within him, of a nature wholly unknown before, and for which he had no name. He sat down upon the ridge where he had been working, full of ineffable delight. He praised God, and he could not describe for what, for he could give no name to his work. His heart was light, his physical strength returned, and he could bound like a roe. He felt a sudden transition from darkness to light-from guilt and oppressive fear, to confidence and peace. He could now draw nigh to God with more confidence than he ever could to his earthly father:-he had freedom of access, and he had freedom of speech. He was like a person who had got into a new world, where although every object was strange, yet each was pleasing; and now he could magnify God for his creation, a thing he never could do before! O what a change was here! and yet, lest he should be overwhelmed with it, its name and its nature were in a great measure hidden from his eyes. Shortly after, his friend Mr. Barber came to his father's house: when he departed, Adam accompanied him a little on the way. When they came in sight of the field that had witnessed the agonies

of his heart and the breaking of his chains, he told Mr. B. what had taken place. The man of God took off his hat, and with tears flowing down his cheeks, gave thanks unto God. "O Adam," said he, "I rejoice in this; I have been daily in expectation that God would shine upon your soul, and bless you with the adoption of his children." Adam stared at him, and said within himself, "O, he thinks surely that I am justified, that God has forgiven me my sins, that I am now his child. O, blessed be God, I believe, I feel I am justified, through the Redemption that is in Jesus." Now he clearly saw what God had done; and although he had felt the blessing before, and was happy in the possession of it, it was only now that he could call it by its name. Now, he saw and felt, that "being justified by faith, he had peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom he had received the atonement."

He continued in peace and happiness all the week: the next Lord's day there was a love-feast in Coleraine; he went to it, and during the first prayer, kneeled in a corner with his face to the wall. While praying, the Lord Jesus seemed to appear to the eyes of his mind, as he is described, Rev. i. 13, 14. clothed with a garment down to his feet, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle: his head and his hair white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire. And though in strong prayer before, he suddenly stopped, and said, though not perhaps in a voice to be heard by those who were by himCome nearer, Oh! Lord Jesus, that I may see thee more distinctly." Immediately he felt as if God had shone upon the work he had wrought, and called it by its own name; he fully, and clearly knew that he was a child of God; the Spirit of God bore this witness in his conscience, and he could no more have doubted of it, than he could have doubted of the reality of his existence, or the identity of his person.

"Meridian evidence put doubt to flight."

In ordinary minds, or those naturally feeble, all this might pass for delusion; his penitential fears and distresses might appear as the effects of a gloomy superstition; and his subsequent peace and happiness, and the sudden nature of his inward change, as the consequences of the workings of a strong imagination, apt, under religious impressions, to degenerate into enthusiasm.

The Reader may rest assured that no one was more jealous on these points than the person in question. He was accustomed to examine every thing to the bottom; and, as it ever was a maxim with him, that Revelation and reason went hand in hand;—that neither contained any thing contrary to the other; so he sought in each, for proofs of those things contained in its fellow. He was ever afraid of being deceived,

and that led him scrupulously to examine every thing that professed to come from God. He believed nothing in salvation on the mere assertion of any man: nor did he yield consent at any time, till Revelation and its handmaid reason, had said, these things are true.

Preaching once in Plymouth, on the Witness of the Spirit in the souls of believers :-after having produced and commented on those Scriptures, which are supposed most pointedly to contain that doctrine, he said,

"It might have been doubted that we have misunderstood these Scriptures, and made them the basis of an article, which they do not fairly and naturally support, if the general testimony of all the sincere converts to the gospel of Christ had not illustrated the facts; and had not the experience of those converts been uniform in this particular, while in many cases, their habits of life, education, and natural temperament, were widely different. And this not only among persons bred up with the same general views of Christianity,-in the same Christian communion; but among persons bred up in different communions, with creeds in many respects diametrically opposite to each other! And farther, this has been the same in persons of different climates and countries. All those who have been convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment— have truly repented of their sins, and taken refuge in the Blood of the Cross; have had their burden of guilt taken away, and the peace of God communicated, and with it the Spirit of God witnessing with their spirit that they were the sons and daughters of God Almighty: so that they had no more doubt of their acceptance with God, than they had of their existence. "But it may be objected farther:-the human mind easily gets under the dominion of superstition and imagination; and then a variety of feelings, apparently divine, may be accounted for on natural principles. To this I answer-1st. Superstition is never known to produce settled peace and happiness,—it is generally the parent of gloomy apprehensions and irrational fears: but surely the man who has broken the laws of his Maker, and lived in open rebellion against him, cannot be supposed to be under the influence of superstition, when he is apprehensive of the wrath of God, and fears to fall into the bitter pains of an eternal death? Such fears are as rational as they are scriptural; and the broken and contrite heart, is ever considered, through the whole Oracles of God, as essentially necessary to the finding redemption in Christ. Therefore, such fears, feelings and apprehensions, are not the offspring of a gloomy superstition; but the fruit and evidence of a genuine scriptural repentance. 2dly. Imagination cannot long support a mental imposture. To persuade the soul that it is passed from 'darkness to light,-that it is in the favor of God,-that it is an heir of glory, &c., will require strong excitement indeed:

and the stronger the exciting cause, or stimulus, the sooner the excitability, and its effects will be exhausted. A person may imagine himself for a moment to be a king, or to be a child of God; but that reverie, where there is no radical derangement of mind, must be transient. The person must soon awake and return to himself. 3d. But it is impossible that imagination can have any thing to do in this case, any farther than any other faculty of the mind, in natural operation: for, the person must walk according as he is directed by the Word of God, abhorring evil, and cleaving to that which is good: and the sense of God's approbation in his conscience, lasts no longer than he acts under the spirit of obedience: God continuing the evidence of his approbation to his conscience while he walks in newness of life. Has imagination ever produced a life of piety? Now, multitudes are found who have had this testimony uninterruptedly for many years together. Could imagination produce this? If so, it is an unique case; for there is none other in which an excitement of the imagination has sustained the impression with any such permanence. And all the operations of this faculty prove, that, to an effect of this kind, it is wholly inadequate. If then it can sustain impressions in spiritual matters for years together, this must be totally preter natural, and the effect of a miraculous operation ;-and thus miracle must be resorted to, to explain away a doctrine, which some men, because they themselves do not experience it, deny that any others can.

"But might I, without offence, speak a word concerning myself? A great necessity alone, would vindicate to my own mind the introduction, in this public way, of any thing relative to myself. But you will bear with my folly, should any of you think it such. I, also, have professed to know that God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven me all my sins; and being thus converted, I am come forth to strengthen my brethren, and preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Most of you know that I am no enthusiast,—that I have given no evidences of a strong imagination,—that I am far from being the subject of sudden hopes or fears,-that it requires strong reasons and clear argumentation to convince me of the truth of any proposition, not previously known. Now, I do profess to have received, through God's eternal mercy, a clear evidence of my acceptance with God; and it was given me after a sore night of spiritual affliction; and precisely in that way in which the Scriptures, already quoted, promise this blessing. It has also been accompanied with power over sin; and it is now upwards of seven years since I received it, and I hold it, through the same mercy, as explicitly, as clearly, and as satisfactorily as ever. No work of imagination could have ever produced or maintained any feeling like this. therefore, safe in affirming, for all these reasons, that we

I am,

have neither misunderstood nor misapplied the Scriptures in question."

The subsequent experience of A. C. equally verified the truth of the preceding statements.

We have now brought down the account of this, in many respects, singular person, to an era which he ever considered the most important in his religious life: for now he had gained decisive experimental proof of the truth of the articles of his creed: and each point was confirmed to him with greater evidence. Now, he could give a reason of the hope that was in him; and in every respect, his own faith was justified to his understanding. He had found true happiness in religion: and this he knew it must afford, if it were of God: for he saw, that Religion was a commerce between God and man; and was intended to be the means of re-establishing him in that communion with his Maker, and the happiness consequent on it, which he had lost by the fall.

All notions of religion, merely as a system of duties which we owe to God, fell, in his apprehension, infinitely short of its nature and intention. To the perfection, happiness, or gratification, of the infinite mind, no creature can be necessary. Religion was not made for GOD; but for MAN. It is an institution of the Divine Benevolence, for human happiness. Nor can God be pleased with any man's religion or faith, but as far as they lead him to happiness,-i. e. to the enjoyment of God; without which there can be no felicity; for God is the Source of intellectual happiness, and from him alone, it can be derived and in union with whom alone, it can be enjoyed. Animal gratifications may be acquired by means of the various matters that are suited to the senses: but gratification and happiness are widely different: the former may exist where the latter is entirely unknown.

After this, A. C. continued a little longer at school. Though he could not well enter into the spirit of Lucian and Juvenal, which he then read; yet he was surprised to find how easy, in comparison of former times, learning appeared. The grace which he had received, greatly illumined and improved his understanding and judgment. Difficulties seemed to have vanished, and learning appeared now little more to him, than an exercise and cultivation of memory. He has been often heard to say: After I found the peace of God to my conscience; and was assured of my interest in the Lord Jesus; I believe I may safely assert, that I learned more in one day, on an average, than formerly I could do, with equal application, in a whole month. And no wonder, my soul began to rise out of the ruins of its fall, by the favour of the Eternal Spirit,

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