*“Such was the contest acted within my heart.――But as soon as more profound meditation had drawn out, from the very bottom of this sink, and laid on an heap, all my misery before the view of my soul; there arose in me a mighty tempest, bringing with it great showers of tears.――I, under a certain fig-tree, threw down myself, I know not how, and gave liberty to my tears; and the rivers of my eyes ran a-pace. And I said, _Thou, Lord, how long? How long wilt thou be angry, for ever? Remember not my former iniquities_, Psalms lxxix. 5, 8. For I well perceived I was still possessed, and with-held by them, and therefore cast out such miserable complaints, _How long? How long? To-morrow, and to-morrow? Why not presently? Why not this very hour, an end to my filthiness._”
*“These things I uttered as I wept with bitter contrition: and behold, I heard a voice as from a neighbouring house, as of a boy or girl, in a singing note, saying, and often repeating; _tolle, lege; tolle, lege; take up and read; take up and read_. And presently my countenance being altered, I began to consider, whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words: nor could I call to mind that I any where heard the like.”
“Whereupon, suppressing the course of my tears, I rose up, interpreting it to be a divine admonition, that I should open the book, and read the place I first light upon.――So getting up hastily, I returned to the place where I had been sitting before, for there I had left St. _Paul_’s epistles. I catched it up, opened it, read in silence the piece of the chapter on which I first cast mine eyes; _not in rioting and drunkenness; not in chambering and wantonness; not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof_. Romans xiii. 13.”
“I could read no farther, nor was there need: for at the end of those lines, as it were with a new light of confidence streaming into my soul, the darkness of all former doubting and hesitancy was dispelled.――――”
*“O Jesus Christ, my helper, and my Redeemer! How sweet on a sudden became it to me, to submit my neck to thy easy yoke, and my shoulders, unto thy light burden.――――And what before, it was my fear to lose, how was it now my joy to dismiss! For thou the true, and the supreme sweetness, didst expel them from me: thou expelledst them and thyself enteredst into me instead of them: more delicious than all delights, but not to flesh and blood: more bright and glorious than all light, but to the inward hidden man, exalted above the heights of all honour, but not to those who exalt themselves.――And now my infant tongue began to converse with thee, my ambition, and my riches, and my salvation, my Lord God!”