29 / 186
to the Chief
of
Sinners. ·
19
I laboured
to
rebnke his
wick~.dtiefs,be
would
laugh the more,
&
pretend· that he had
gone
through all
Religions, and could never
light
on the
right
till
now :
He
told
me
alfo,that
in
little time I
fhould
fee all Profeffors turn
to
the ways of theRanters,\\lherefore,
abomina–
ting thofe
curfed
Principies,
I
l~ft
his
Corn
pa–
ny
forthwith, and became to him as great a
Stranger
as
I
had
been before
a
·Familiar.
. ·-
45.
Neither
\Vas
this
Man only
a
temptation
to me,but
my
CalLing
lying in
the
Country, I ··
happened to light
into
fevera-1 Peoples Corn-
·
pany; who,
though
ftricl: in Religion forrner–
ly,yet
were alfo fwept
away
by
thefe
Ranters~·
·
Thefe would
alfo talk
\Vitb
me of
their
Ways,
and condernn
me as
legal
and dark,pretend–
ing that they only had attained to
~erfecrion,
that
could do what
they
would,
and
not
fin.
Oh
!
Thefe
Temptations
were fuitable to
my
Flelh, I being
put
a young Man, and
n1
y
Na–
ture
in its prime;
but
God,
who had,as
I hope,
defign'd me
for hetter things, kept
me
in the ·
fear
of
his
Name,
2nd did
not fuffer
me to,ac–
cept
of
fuch curfed
Principles.
And
bleffed
be
God,
who put
it
into
tny
heart
to
cry
to him,
to
be kept and direCted,ftill diftrufring
mine
own
wifdom
; .
for
I
have fince feen even
the
·effeCt:
of
that ·Prayer,
in his
preferving
me
not only fron1
Ranting
Errors,but from
thofe .
alfo that have fprung up
fince.
The
Bible
\Vas
precious to me in
thofe
days, ·
..46. And now, me thought, I begaR to look
·
.
B ·
·
into