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sinner, and for a season, was in deep distress — but it pleased the Lord, at length, to lift up the light of his reconciled countenance upon him, and to give him peace.

[It is stated, in one or two little sketches of his life, which the author has seen in print, that he was converted under the ministry of the late pious and excellent Dr. Laidlie. This is a mistake. He did not become acquainted with that distinguished man of God, till the summer of 1765, — some considerable time after the blessed change had, as he believed, taken place. — If he had previously overheard him preach, which might have been the case, and the sermon or sermons had proved so profitable to his soul, it can hardly be supposed, that he would have failed to notice the incident, when giving himself, quite a minute detail of the commencement and progress of his religious exercises. — In this, however, there is nothing of the kind mentioned or even alluded to; and what he does say of the peculiar circumstances, under which his attention was directed to eternal things, corresponds with the representation made above.] The reader will no doubt be gratified to see his own account of a work, which resulted in a cordial submission to Christ as the Lord, his Redeemer. "A Book," he says, "of Bunyan, I think it was — Grace abounding to the chief of sinners, first excited sharp and irresistible alarms in my soul, but I obtained no particular instruction nor received any other advantage from that book. In my

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father's library, among other religious books, I found Doddridge's Rise and Progress, &c. This gave me more enlarged and correct views of religion than I ever had before. I perused it with great attention and much prayer, and wished to feel and experience the power of the truths, as they occurred in succession. This book was useful and blessed to me beyond any uninspired volume I ever read. But my chief attention was fixed upon the Sacred Scriptures. I knew nothing of the peculiar nature of a divine revelation, nor of the distinct classes of arguments, which prove the Bible to be written by men inspired of the Holy Ghost; but there was an internal evidence in that sacred Book, — there was a majesty, sublimity, and authority connected with perspicuity and power, which commanded my attention, and enjoined obedience. — The divine perfections of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, one God; and his glorious works, as delineated in the Bible, I was sure were agreeable to truth. And I found the secrets of my heart, my state, my character, my principles and conduct, were all naked and open to the word of God. To receive, therefore, that blessed Volume, without hesitation, as the standard of my faith and practice, was my ardent wish, being firmly persuaded that I should be condemned or accepted agreeably to its infallible declarations. To understand the