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of his word, and the inventions and traditions of men.

At this time I established a weekly lecture for expounding scripture in my other parish, which occasioned my further acquaintance with the various parts of the word of God. It was my general practice in penning these lectures, to search out all the scriptures referred to in the margin, and all others I could recollect upon the subject, and to make use of them in explaining each other. This method enabled me to store my memory with texts of scripture, and made way for a greater exactness in discussing doctrinal subjects, than I had hitherto been acquainted with.

In the course of the winter, 1777, I was engaged in deep meditation upon Luke, c. xi. v. 9,13; concerning the Holy Spirit being given in answer to prayer. And at length, having made a collection of all the scriptures I could meet with, which respected that important doctrine; and having diligently compared them together, and meditated upon them, and besought the Lord to ful

fil the promise to my soul, I wrote two sermons upon the subject; one from Luke, c. xi. v. 13. "If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spi rit to them that ask him." The other from James, c. i. v. 16, 17. "Do not err, my beloved brethren, every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights." By this, my views of a christian's privileges and duties in this respect, were much enlarged, and my requests were made known unto the Lord in a more full, exact, and believing manner, than heretofore. Though much in the dark in many important matters respecting the person, offices, and work of the Holy Ghost; yet I had discovered more of what was promised concerning him, and therefore, knew better what to ask for.

My obligations to bishop Beveridge are next to be acknowledged. When I first began to peruse his sermons, I conceived a mean opinion of him, and it was some.

time before I could prevail with myself to examine any further into his writings; but being now further advaced in my inquiry after truth, those singularities, which at first offended me, be came tolerable, and I began to relish the simplicity,spirituality,and love of Christ, and affection for souls, which eminently shine forth in many places of his works. Indeed, I received considerable instruction from him; but especially his sermon on the real satisfaction, made by the death of Christ for the sins of believers, was the blessed means of clearing up my views, and confirming my faith respecting that fundamental doctrine of christianity. On Good Friday, 1777, I preached a sermon upon that subject, from Isaiah, c. liii. v. 6. “ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid, (hath caused to light,) on him the iniquities of us all." Wherein I endeavored to prove that, which hath ever since been the sole foundation of all my hopes; namely, that Christ

indeed bare the sins of all, who should ever truly believe, in all their guilt, condemnation, and deserved punishment, in his own body on the tree. And I explicitly avowed my belief, that Christ, as our surety and bond's-man, stood in our law place, to answer all our obligations, and to satisfy divine justice, and the demands of the law for our offences; and I publicly renounced, as erroneous and grievous perversions of scripture, all my former explanation and interpretations of these subjects.

This was the first doctrine, in which I was clearly and fully brought to acknowledge the truth, though I had, with no little earnestness for two years, been inquiring about it; to so astonishing a degree was my blinded understanding filled with prejudice against the doctrines of the word of God! Hitherto they had been foolishness to me; but now, under the divine teaching, I began, though very dimly, to discern the wisdom of God in them.

I say dimly; for I was still under many, and great mistakes, and in much

ignorance in the most important matters. I knew sin to be a transgression of God'slaw; but I did not see its odious deformity in being in deliberate rebellion against God's sovereign authority, and an express contradiction to his holy nature; in charging God foolishly, as either wanting wisdom, or goodness in laying such restraints upon the incli nations of his creatures; and as tending to overturn all subordination in the universe, and to introduce anarchy, confusion, and misery into the whole creation of God. My own best actions I perceived to be defiled: but I understood not, that this was the effect of a depraved nature, and a polluted heart. The doctrine of original sin, as the fruitful root of these multiplied evils, was not yet a part of my creed. Inconsistently I was an Arian or a Clarkist in my sentiments concerning the person of Christ, and the divinity of the Holy Ghost. Some faint conception I had formed of that sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in the soul; the beginnings of it I little understood. And I continu