V18 .MEMOIRS OF PERIOD IX. time when I had been content without fuclr a thing and when feemed to have it, was not content with it, nor would be ; it could not fill up his room. Jan, 29. Lail night I was concerned to get my foul's cafe bettered ; for I faw Satan was bufy with me now, having this work in hand. I found great difficulty in believing my welcome to the blood caf Chritt, after,:I had been fo battled by temptation, and that to=quickly after covenanting with God, and. making ulè of that blood. Verily the way of the covenant of grace is not the way Of `nature. But by the tenor'ef the covenant, Heb. viii: 10, 1 -2. my faith of this was raifed. And this morning I found my foul fweetly compofèd, believing that the covenant of 'l'uef day lait yet ftands ; and was inclined to put peri to paper with- out delay, the rather that it might be a mean of perfbnal holinefs to myfelf. Feb, 3. Accordingly that day, Tuefday the 29th of January, after prayer, and getting my heart compofed to a dependence on the Lord, I began to write theft fermons, and did fomething therein ; but the temptation recurred, and was laid to me violent- ly, till Thurfday's night Very late. On the 1Vednefday I was quite laid afide with it, deeply melancholy, and unfit for every thing. In which cafe, in the afternoon, I went up the brook to. a folitary place, prayed, and fund Pfal. cvii. 8. and downwards; and. came home pretty well recovered, violently and'refolutely plucking up my fpirit; and though the temptation lafted, it no more got me down to that degree. On the Thurfday I pro- ceeded in writing and in the very time I got a new affault, but refifted it, and went on. At night, going on in the work, there was a new affault ; which fo difcompofed me, that I was obliged" to lay it afide, and betake myfelf toa ftudy requiring lefs thought. Thus Satan has made a ftrange buffle againft this work; and tho' my, mifbehaviour under it is matter of mourning, yet confidering the iffue of it, in its effect on my heart, I cannot think on the dif'penfttion, but my foul blefles God therein. The etfeót was very neceffary to fit me for the work inland ; and indeed, fo.far as 'I remember, I never felt it fo eafÿ to keep up. This morning my heart began to fwell with vanity ; but God. corre&fed it, ,by his leaving mein confufion there where I thought I was heft buckled. O the deceit of my heart! O the goodnefs of God that has fo quickly checked my folly! Praifes to him .for it. This day eight days before day, I was fent for to fee a certain young man thought to be a-dying. He confidently gave out, that he was juft a- dying; that when he was in Edinburgh laft, he thought he would never fee it more, and fo had been prepar- ing for death. He was confident of his eternal welfare; and fpoke fo much, that I could fcarcely get a fentence fpoken to an end ; and he difturbed me mightily in prayer with his fpeaking. I thought it looked not very like the workof theSpirit, and there-
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