me, but ineffectual. Many were the resolutions I formed, but too weak to withstand passion. Alas! what delusions the unregenerated mind is under before a work of grace is wrought upon the soul!

In the year 1740, being then about twentytwo years of age, a roving thought entered my mind, that I must travel for more experience in my business. Wild and giddy, I determined upon it. But when I came to take leave of my tender and loving parents, though I shewed myself to them very stout and courageous; yet, no sooner had I departed from them, than a deep impression of sorrow seized upon my mind. I felt exceedingly in the thought that I was launching out into a wide and wicked world, and going I knew not where. In my broken way, I prayed to God; but it was to an unknown God. He knew me, blessed be his name, before the world's existence. But I knew not this, neither did I know him; and yet I believe, poor and wretched as a pauper must be to an unknown God, the Lord heard and answered me: for he raised me up such a friend on my journey, as, but for his seasonable help and advice, I know not what the event of my journey might have been.

It was about the summer of the same year

when I arrived at Bath, and where an event, in a speedy and inconsiderate marriage, took place, in which many of the afflicting provi dences of my life might be said to have had their foundation.

I had not arrived in Bath but a day, when as I was walking the town in order to seek for work, the voice of a woman calling me by name, arrested my attention. I looked round at the spot from whence the voice issued, and saw a woman whom I remembered to have seen before. She had lived near my father's house in Exeter. After a little conversation, I told her that my business in visiting Bath, was to get work, by way of improvement. She kindly undertook to speak to her mistress's joiner, that he might employ me; and this she did; so that I soon procured a situation for the exercise of my trade and improvement in it. Here, therefore, was a renewed instance of the Lord's merciful providence over me.

But while I was thus very advantageously placed for the furtherance in my calling, an acquaintance with a young woman, who lived in the neighbourhood, brought about a connection of another kind, which shortly terminated in my marriage with her. She had some little property, of between forty and fifty pounds.

But my marriage day was a very gloomy day: I knew not from what cause, but I could not be merry; all my attempts were vain.

It

Three days after our marriage we rode to Frome, where my wife had to receive twenty guineas. The money was paid, and I received it; but neither did this afford me any pleasure. My heart was filled with grief. I burst into a flood of tears, and could not tell the cause. seemed, though I knew not what was in the womb of Providence, a foreboding of some unfavourable events connected with my mar riage. For indeed, many sad events sprung out of it but at this time they were too dist ant, even to be conceived. My wife expressed her surprise, and asked the cause. I could not inform her, for I knew not myself. Our wedding days were too early to have produced any thing untoward, and there the matter rested.

Soon after our marriage, my father came from Exeter to visit us: and as a very long, and very severe winter followed, it was thought advisable to return with him, and settle near him. The ways of the Lord are in the great deep, and his footsteps unknown.

At the instance and advice of my father, I entered into the brick trade, took a large yard, and made bricks for sale. This proved, for a

time, wonderfully prosperous. And in proportion to the Lord's success, in blessing my endeavours, my sinful heart was departing more from him.

But my dear Lord, who I am now persuaded, loved me from eternity, was preparing a smart rod for me. I had now much worldly prosperity in view, and was going on, as the world calls it, vastly well. My wife was now advancing in pregnancy, money coming in, and all things gay and smiling. I kept more company; was frequently intoxicated, though not without alarms of conscience; and thus I went on, from bad to worse, until the Lord's time, which was now almost come, that he would call me from the evil of my way, when, in great wisdom, he laid the foundation of this wonderful work of grace in my heart, by an event which at once blasted all my prospects in trade, and compelled me to give up the business.

I had a kiln of bricks burning, whose value was equal to all my property. I remember it well, I was in the midst of a merry story, with which I was diverting the people round the kiln, when, of a sudden, we heard a rumbling kind of noise at the bottom of the kiln; and presently, the whole fell in. By this event, I

lost the greater part of its value. Not dispirited, however, I went on, repaired the kiln, supplied the bricks, and set fire to the kiln afresh. But on opening it, after expecting to make up my former loss, I found the bricks not half burnt, so that my stock was wholly done.

Thus the Lord, in his providence, sending one loss after another, led to the way for my removal from Exeter, preparatory to the leading my heart to the knowledge of him and of myself.

Compelled by reason of my low circumstances to seek bread elsewhere, I committed all my little property to my father, that he might turn the whole into cash, and pay my creditors; and with an aching heart, I took leave of my wife and child, and set off for Plymouth, intending to seek employment in my own trade.

This was in the spring of 1743. Nothing material occurred on my journey, unless a renewed instance of my unworthiness, and the divine mercy. For on the road, meeting with what the world calls a good fellow, falling first into discourse, and then, as is usual with such characters, sitting down to drink together, I drank so freely, that I became intoxicated;