22 / 186
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
profeffion
of
Re/igion;who,as
I then thong
1t,did talk
plea–
fantly
of the
Scriptnres,and
of 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,
and
did
{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–
them
pretty
well
{omrtime-s,
and then I £hould
have
comfort;
yet
now
and then fhould break
one, and fo affiitl:
my
Confcience;
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\1
an,