31 / 186
to the Chief
of
Sin~ers.
11
· elude
themfelves
in a
faithlefs State,
have nei–
ther refr nor
quiet
in their
Soul~
; and· I was
loth to
fall quite
into
defpair. ·
_
49·
Wherefore
by
this fuggeftion,I
was for
a while,made afraicd
to fee
my
w.ant ofFaith;
but God would not fuffer me
thus
to
undo
&
deftroy
my
Soul,but did
continually,
ag~infl:'
.this
my
fad
and
blind
Conclufion,
create
ftill–
within me
fuch fu ppofitions,infomuch
that I
could
not ·
reft
content, until I did
now
come ~
to fome
certain Knowledge, whether I
had
Faith or no;
this always
running in
my
m.ind,.
BHt how
if
you want Faith indeed.?But how canJ'U
tell
you
ha1JeFaith?
And
be
fides,
I
faw
for (:er-
. tain,ifi
had
it
not,I was fure
to
peri1h
for
ever.
5o.So that though I endea
vo.ur'd
at the
firft
to look over the
bufinefs
of
Faith,
yet
in a little
time,I
bctt,~r
confidering the matter, was
wil–
ling
to put
my
felf
upon
the
trya!,
whether I
had
Faith, or no.
But
alas,poor wretch
!
So ig–
norant and bruitilh was I,
that
I knew,to
this ·
.day, no more how
to
do
it,
than
I know
how
to
begin and
~ccomplifh
that
rare and cu.ri- ·
ous
piece ofArt,which I
never
yet
faw or
con-:·
.fidered. .
-
51. \Vherefore
\V
hile I was
thus
confider–
ing ~and
being put to
my
plunge about
it
(for
you
muft know)that as
yet,
I had,in this mat–
ter,broken
my-Mind
to no Man,only did hear
and
confider
the
Teq1pter came in_with .. his
delufioa,
·rh
at there was
110
way
for me to know
I
had
Faith,
b11t
by
tryin
to
work
[otm
Mirac_lc
;
ur 1n