304 MEMOIRS OP PERIOD XI. ,work. On the Monday afternoon we went in to the commif- lion, Mr Wilion and I having been both brought within fight of death, threatening that we fhould not have accefs to appear in that caufe again : and both about the fame time, he by a fall from his horfe, I as aforefaid. Thus the Lord dealt with us as with his own, and gave us a fight of death, to caufe us to take hee& . bowwe manage in his matters. The Lord's ftayingnay foul in the light of death, on that foundation of faithabove fail, controverted at this time in our prefent ftruggle., was, and is, very confirm- ing. We waited on three days ; were never but once called before the committee on the Wedneíday, to tell us, that the committee had prepared an overture about our affair, to be laid before the cornmi<flìon ; and on the Thurfdaybefore the com- miflion, to tell us, that the commflìon had prepared an overture about it, to be tranfmitted to the affembly and we were ap- pointed to wait on in November again. We were Rill deferted by all, not one offering to join us. My courage for appearing before thetas, and reafoning, was low at this time ; for there was littleor nothing to do with it. On the 22d of Auguft I fpent forne time in prayer, for the cafe of my own foul, and a multiplicity of buíinefs laid to my hand, while in the mean time my ftrength was much decayed ; yet defiring to be found fo doing. That bufinefs then was, the writing notes on the marrow ; the preparing of the Fourfold State for a fecond edition, which Mr Macewan, the publifher, did demand ; the preparing forne fermons for the prefs, defired alfo by the fame perfon, and which I had forne way yielded to; and above all, the effay on the accentuation, the proceeding wherein my heart trembled to think of being deprived of an op- portunity for; all which require a great deal of time, and ftrength too. I laid my foul over on my Lord Chrift, and , defired to go on in my work as I was able, that if the Lord fhould take me away in the midit of it, I might be found íó doing. [But now I thank my gracious God, that, however trying the profpea I then had thereof was, in refpeát of the Bate of my health, I have by this time [1730] got through all that bufrnefs for the fervice of my God, and more too, which 'bath caft up fince that time.] I was now led, for my ordinary, to treat ofthe two covenants, which lafted a long time. I began on the covenant of works, Aug. 27. this year : and handling it at large, from feveral texts, I infifted thereon till May in the following year *. I ftudied it with confiderable earneftnefs and application ; being prompted thereto, as to the clofe confderation of the other covenant too * This valuable performance was published in 1772. Notwithítanding it labours under the common difadvantages of a pofthumous publication, it contains a vein of felid thought, judicious reafoning, and enters deeper into the feveral branches of that important fubjeáì, than any treatife hitherto published. It is now printed along with the Coyenant of -Grace, in one volume Svo.
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