Grace a ing authority; now I conld, without it, fpeak bette~,and with 1nore plca_{antnefs than ever I could before. All this while I knew not Jefus Chrijl,neither did I leave 111y Sports and Play. 22.But quickly after this,I fell into compa ... ny with one poor Man ,that n1Jde profeffionof Re/igion;who,as I then thong1t,did talk plea– fantly of theScriptnres,andof the Mat ers of Religion: Wherefore fallin g into fon1e love and liking to what hefaid; I betook me to n1y Bible, and began to take g-reat pleafi1re in reading, but efpecially with the Hiftorical p_art thereof; for as for Paul's Epiftles, and , fuch like Scriptures, I could not away with them; being as yet ignorant, either of the Corruptions of my Nature, or of the want and worth of 1efus Chrift to fave me. 30. Wherefore I fell to fome outward Re· formation, both in my vVords & Life, anddid {et the Commandments before me for my way to, .He~even; which .Commandments I alfo did' ft~ive to keep, and, as I thought, did keep– thempretty well {omrtime-s, and then I £hould havecomfort; yet now and then fhould break one, and fo affiitl: myConfcience; but then I 1hould repent, and fay, I v; as forry for it,and promife God to do better next time, and. there get help again, for then I thought I pleafed God as well as any Man in EngLmd. · ?. I. Thus I continued about a Year ; all which time our Neighbours did take me to be a 'very Godly' Man, a new and Religious · · l\1an,
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