time all my life, either before or after. 'Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them,' Heb. vii. 25.

"One day, when I was in a meeting of God's people, full of sadness and terror, for my fears again were strong upon me, and as I was now thinking my soul was never the better, but my case most sad and fearful, these words did with great power suddenly break in upon me,- My grace is sufficient for thee, my grace is sufficient for thee, my grace is sufficient for thee,' three times together. And oh! methought that every word was a mighty word unto me; as 'my,' and 'grace,' and 'sufficient,' and 'for thee;' they were then, and sometimes are still, far bigger than others be.

"That scripture most sweetly visited my soul,— 'And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,' John vi. 37. Oh, the comfort that I had from this word, 'in no wise'! As who should say, 'By no means, for nothing whatever he hath done.' But Satan would greatly labour to pull this promise from me, telling me 'that Christ did not meanme and such as I, but sinners of a lower rank, that had not done as I had done.' But I would answer him again, 'Satan, here is in these words no such exception; but him that comes, him, any him: Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' And this I well remember still, that of all the sleights that Satan used to take this Scripture from me, yet he never did so much as put this question,-'But do you come aright?' And I have thought the reason was, because he thought I knew full well what coming aright was, for I saw that to come aright was to come as I was, a vile and ungodly sinner, and so cast

myself at the feet of mercy, condemning myself for sin. If ever Satan and I did strive for any word of God in all my life, it was for this good word of Christ; he at one end, and I at the other. Oh, what work we made! It was for this in John, I say, that we did so tug and strive, he pulled and I pulled; but, God be praised, I overcame him; I got sweetness from it."

"One day, as I was passing into the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest all was not right yet, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul,-Thy righteousness is in heaven;' and methought withal I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand: there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, ' He wants my righteousness,' for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, 'the same yesterday, to day, and for ever,' Heb. xiii. 8.

"Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed; I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God left off to trouble me: now went I also home rejoicing, for the grace and love of God; so when I came home, I looked to see if I could find that sentence, 'Thy righteousness is in heaven,' but could not find such a saying; wherefore my heart began to sink again, only that was brought to my remembrance,' He is made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,' 1 Cor. i. 33 by this word I saw the other sentence true.

"For by this scripture I saw that the man Christ Jesus, as he is distinct from us as touching his bodily

presence, so he is our righteousness and sanctification before God: here, therefore, I lived, for some time, very sweetly at peace with God through Christ; oh! methought, Christ! Christ! there was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes. I was not now only for looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as of his blood, burial, or resurrection, but considering him as a whole Christ; as he in whom all these, and all other his virtues, relations, offices, and operations met together, and that he sat on the right hand of God in heaven.

"It was glorious to me to see his exaltation, and the worth and prevalency of all his benefits, and that because now I could look from myself to him, and would reckon that all those graces of God that now were green on me, were yet but like those cracked groats and fourpence-halfpennies * that rich men carry in their purses, when their gold is in their trunk at home: oh! I saw my gold was in my trunk at home in Christ my Lord and Saviour. Now Christ was all; all my righteousness, all my sanctification, and all my redemption.

Further, the Lord did also lead me into the mystery of union with the Son of God; that I was joined to him, 'that I was flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone,' Ephes. v. 30; and now was that word of St. Paul sweet to me. By this also was my faith in him, as my righteousness, the more confirmed in me; for if he and I were one, then his righteousness was mine, his merits mine, his victory also mine. Now could I see myself in heaven and earth at once,—in heaven by my Christ, by my head, by my righteousness and life, though on earth by my body or person. "Now I saw Christ Jesus was looked upon of God, * Coins well known in Bunyan's day.

and should also be looked upon by us, as that common or public person, in whom all the whole body of his elect are always to be considered and reckoned; that we fulfilled the law by him, died by him, rose from the dead by him, got the victory over sin, death, the devil, and hell, by him: when he died, we died; and so of his resurrection. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise,' saith he, Isa. xxvi. 19. And again, 'After two days he will revive us, and the third day we shall live in his sight,' Hos. vi. 2. Which is now fulfilled by the sitting down of the Son of man on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, according to that to the Ephesians, He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,' Ephes. ii. 6.

"Ah! these blessed considerations and scriptures, with many others of like nature, were in those days made to spangle in mine eye, so that I have cause to say, 'Praise ye the Lord God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness,' Psa. cl. 1, 2.

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Having thus in a few words given you a taste of the sorrow and affliction that my soul went under, by the guilt and terror that these my wicked thoughts did lay me under; and having given you also a touch of my deliverance therefrom, and of the sweet and blessed comfort that I met with afterwards, which comfort dwelt about a twelvemonth with my heart, to my unspeakable admiration; I will now, God willing, before I proceed any farther, give you in a word or two what, as I conceive, was the cause of this temptation; and also after that, what advantage, at the last, it became unto my soul."

THE CAUSE OF THESE VARIOUS TEMPTATIONS.

"For the causes, I conceive they were principally two; of which two also I was deeply convinced all the time this trouble lay upon me. The first was, for that I did not, when I was delivered from the temptation that went before, still pray to God to keep me from the temptations that were to come; for though, as I can say in truth, my soul was much in prayer before this trial seized me, yet when I prayed only, or at the most, principally, for the removal of present troubles, and for fresh discoveries of his love in Christ, which I saw afterwards was not enough to do; I also should have prayed that the great God would keep me from the evil that was to come.

"Of this I was made deeply sensible by the prayer of holy David, who, when he was under present mercy, yet prayed that God would hold him back from sin and temptation to come; 'For then,' saith he, 'shall I be upright, and then I shall be innocent from the great transgression,' Psa. xix. 13. By this very word was I galled and condemned quite through this long temptation.

"That was also another word that did much condemn me for my folly in the neglect of this duty,-'Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in

time of need,' Heb. iv. 16. This I had not done, and therefore was thus suffered to sin and fall, according to what is written, 'Pray that ye enter not into temptation:' and truly this very thing is to this day of such weight and awe upon me, that I dare not, when I come before the Lord, go off my knees until I entreat him for help and mercy against the temptations that are to come; and I do beseech thee, reader,