The next morning we prepared to return home (that is, my father, my younger sister, and myself, for my elder sister was gone before by the stage-coach to London), and when, having taken our leaves of our friends, we went forth, they, with Edward Burrough, accompanying us to the gate, he there directed his speech in a few words to each of us severally, according to the sense he had of our several conditions; and when we were gone off, and they gone in again, they asking him what he thought of us, he answered them (as they afterwards told me) to this effect: As for the old man, he is settled on his lees, and the young woman is light and airy; but the young man is reached, and may do well if he does not lose it." And surely that which he said to me, or rather, that spirit in which he spake it, took such fast hold on me, that I felt sadness and trouble come over me, though 1 did not distinctly understand what I was troubled for. I knew not what I ailed, but I knew I ailed something more than ordinary, and my heart was very heavy.

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I found it was not so with my father and sister, for, as I rode after the coach, I could hear them talk pleasantly one to the other, but they could not discern how it was with me, because I, riding on horseback, kept much out of sight.

By the time we got home it was night; and the next day, being the first day of the week, I went in the afternoon to hear the minister of Chinner; and this was the last time I ever went to hear any of that function. After the sermon, I went with him to his house, and in a freedom of discourse (which, from a certain intimacy that was between us, I commonly used with him), told him where I had been, what company I had met with there, and what observations I had made to myself thereupon. He seemed to understand as little of them as I had done before, and civilly abstained from casting any unhandsome reflections on them.

I had a desire to go to another meeting of the Quakers, and bid my father's man inquire if there was any in the country thereabouts. He thereupon told me he had heard, at Isaac Penington's, that there was to be a meeting at High Wycombe on Thursday next.

Thither, therefore, I went, though it was seven miles from me; and, that I might be rather thought to go out a coursing than to a meeting, I let my greyhound run by my horse-side.

When I came there, and had set up my horse at an inn, I was at a loss how to find the house where the meeting was to be. I knew it not, and was ashamed to ask after it: wherefore, having ordered the hostler to take care of my dog, I went into the street and stood at the inn-gate, musing with myself what course to take. But I had not stood long, ere I saw an horseman riding along the street, whom I remembered I had seen before

at Isaac Penington's, and he put up his horse at the same inn. Him, therefore, I resolved to follow, supposing he was going to the meeting, as, indeed, he was.

Being come to the house, which proved to be John Raunce's, I saw the people sitting together in an outer room; wherefore I stepped in and sat down on the first void seat, the end of a bench just within the door, having my sword by my side, and black clothes on, which drew-some eyes upon me. It was not long ere one stood up and spake, whom I was afterwards well acquainted with; his name was Samuel Thornton, and what he spake was very suitable, and of good service to me, for it reached home as if it had been directed to me.

As soon as the meeting was ended, and the people began to rise, I being next the door, stepped out quickly, and hastening to my inn, took horse immediately homewards, and (so far as I remember) my having been gone was not taken notice of by my father.

This latter meeting was like the clinching of a nail, confirming and fastening in my mind those good principles which had sunk into me at the former. My understanding began to open, and I felt some stirrings in my breast, tending to the work of a new creation in me. The general trouble and confusion of mind which had for some days lain heavy upon me, and pressed me down, without a distinct discovery of the particular cause for which it came, began now to wear off, and some glimmerings of light began to break forth in me, which let me see my inward state and condition towards God. The light, which before had shone in my darkness, and the darkness could not comprehend it, began now to shine out of darkness, and in some measure discovered to me what it was that had before clouded me, and brought that sadness and trouble upon me; and now I saw, although I had been, in a great degree, preserved from the common immoralities and gross pollutions of the world, yet the spirit of the world had hitherto ruled in me, and led me into pride, flattery, vanity, and superfluity, all which was naught. I found there were many plants growing in me, which were not of the heavenly Father's planting, and that all these, of whatever sort or kind they were, or how specious soever they might appear, must be plucked up.

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Now was all my former life ripped up, and my sins, by degrees, were set in order before me; and though they looked. not with so black a hue and so deep a dye as those of the lewdest sort of people did, yet I found that all sin (even that which had the fairest or finest show, as well as that which was more coarse and foul) brought guilt, and with and for guilt, condemnation on the soul that sinned. This I felt, and was greatly bowed down under the sense thereof.

Now, also, did I receive a new law (an inward law superadded to the outward), the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which wrought in me against all evil, not only in deed and in word, but even in thought also; so that every thing was brought to judgment, and judgment passed upon all: so that I could not any longer go on in my former ways and course of life, for when I did, judgment took hold upon me for it.

Thus the Lord was graciously pleased to deal with me, in somewhat like manner as he had dealt with his people Israel of old (when they had transgressed his righteous law), whom, by his prophet, he called back, required to put away the evil of their doings, bidding them first cease to do evil, then learn to do well, before he would admit them to reason with him, and before he would impart to them the effects of his free mercy.-Isaiah i. 16, 17.

I was now required by this inward and spiritual law (the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus) to put away the evil of my doings, and to cease to do evil: and what, in particulars, the evil was which I was required to put away, and to cease from, that measure of the divine light, which was now manifested in me, discovered to me; and what the light made manifest to be evil, judgment passed upon.

So that here began to be a way cast up before me, for me to walk in; a direct and plain way; so plain, that a wayfaring man, how weak and simple soever (though a fool to the wisdom, and in the judgment of the world), could not err, while he continued to walk in it; the error coming in by his going out of it. And this way with respect to me, I saw, was that measure of divine light which was manifested in me, by which the evil of my doings, which I was to put away and to cease from, was discovered to me.

By this divine light then I saw, that though I had not the evil of the common uncleanness, debauchery, profaneness, and pollutions of the world to put away, because I had, through the great goodness of God, and a civil education, been preserved out of those grosser evils, yet I had many other evils to put away, and to cease from, some of which were not by the world (which lies in wickedness, 1 John v. 19) accounted evils, but by the light of Christ were made manifest to me to be evils, and as such condemned in me.

As, particularly, those fruits and effects of pride, that discover themselves in the vanity and superfluity of apparel, which I, as far as my ability would extend to, took, alas! too much delight in. This evil of my doings I was required to put away and cease from, and judgment lay upon me till I did so: wherefore, in obedience to the inward law, (which agreed with the outward, 1 Tim. ii. 9; 1 Peter iii. 3; 1 Tim. vi. 8; James i. 21), I

took off from my apparel those unnecessary trimmings of lace, ribbons, and useless buttons, which had no real service, but were set on only for that which was by mistake called ornament, and I ceased to wear rings.

Again: The giving of flattering titles to men, between whom and me there was not any relation, to which such titles could be pretended to belong. This was an evil I had been much addicted to, and was accounted a ready artist in; therefore this evil also was I required to put away and cease from: so that thenceforward I durst not say Sir, Master, My Lord, Madam, (or My Dame), or say, Your Servant, to any one to whom I did not stand in the real relation of a servant, which I had never done to any.

Again: Respect of persons, in uncovering the head, and bowing the knee or body in salutations, was a practice I had been much in the use of; and this being one of the vain customs of the world, introduced by the spirit of the world, instead of the true honor, which this is a false representation of, and used in deceit, as a token of respect, by persons one to another, who bear no real respect one to another. And besides, this being a type and proper emblem of that divine honor which all ought to pay to Almighty God, and which all, of all sorts, who take upon them the Christian name, appear in when they offer their prayers to him, and therefore should not be given to men. found this to be one of those evils which I had been too long doing, therefore I was now required to put it away, and cease from it.

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Again: The corrupt and unsound form of speaking in the plural number to a single person-" you" to one, instead of "thou," contrary to the pure, plain, and single language of truth, "thou" to one, and "you" to more than one, which had always been used by God to men, and men to God, as well as one to another, from the oldest record of time, till corrupt men, for corrupt ends, in later and corrupt times, to flatter, fawn, and work upon the corrupt nature in men, brought in that false and senseless way of speaking, "you" to one, which hath since corrupted the modern languages, and hath greatly debased the spirits, and depraved the manners of men. This evil custom. I had been as forward in as others, and this I was now called out of, and required to cease from.

These, and many more evil customs, which had sprung up in the night of darkness, and general apostacy from the truth, and true religion, were now, by the inshining of this pure ray of divine light in my conscience, gradually discovered to me to be what I ought to cease from, shun, and stand a witness against. But so subtilly, and, withal, so powerfully did the enemy work upon the weak part in me, as to persuade me that in these things I ought to make a difference between my father and all other

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men; and that therefore, though I did disuse these tokens of respect to others, yet I ought still to use them towards him, as he was my father: and so far did this wile of his prevail upon me, through a fear lest I should do amiss in withdrawing any sort of respect or honor from my father, which was due unto him, that being thereby beguiled, I continued for a while to demean myself in the same manner towards him, with respect both to language and gesture, as I had always done before; and so long as I did so (standing bare before him, and giving him the accustomed language), he did not express, whatever he thought, any dislike of me.

But as to myself, and the work begun in me, I found it was not enough for me to cease to do evil, though that was a good and a great step: I had another lesson before me, which was to learn to do well, which I could by no means do, till I had given up, with full purpose of mind, to cease from doing evil; and when I had done that, the enemy took advantage of my weakness to mislead me again.

For whereas I ought to have waited in the light, for direction and guidance into and in the way of well-doing, and not to have moved till the Divine Spirit (a manifestation of which the Lord has been pleased to give unto me, for me to profit with, or by), the enemy transforming himself into the appearance of an angel of light, offered himself in that appearance, to be my guide and leader into the performance of religious exercises. And I, not then knowing the wiles of Satan, and being eager to be doing some acceptable service to God, too readily yielded myself to the conduct of my enemy, instead of my friend.

He thereupon, humoring the warmth and zeal of my spirit, put me upon religious performances in my own will, in my own time, and in my own strength; which in themselves were good, and would have been profitable unto me, and acceptable unto the Lord, if they had been performed in his will, in his time, and in the ability which he gives: but, being wrought in the will of man, and at the prompting of the evil one, no wonder that it did me hurt instead of good.

I read abundantly in the Bible, and would set myself tasks in reading, enjoining myself to read so many chapters, sometimes an whole book, or long epistle, at a time; and I thought that time well spent, though I was not much the wiser for what I had read, reading it too cursorily, and without the true guide, the Holy Spirit, which alone could open the understanding, and give the true sense of what was read.

I prayed often, and drew out my prayers to a great length; and appointed unto myself certain set times to pray at, and a certain number of prayers to say in a day: we knew not, mean while, what true prayer was; which stands not in words, though