e taken the
play long. God hath given me thirty-five years to repent, but alas! I
have mispent it:" and with that he covered his face and wept. The
minister assured him, that although his day was far spent, yet he
behoved in the afternoon, yea when near evening, to run fast, and not to
lie in the field, and miss his lodging, upon which he, with uplifted
eyes, said, "Lord, how can I run? Lord, draw me, and I shall run," Cant.
i. 4. The minister hearing this, desired him to pray, but he answered
nothing; yet within an hour he prayed before him and his own lady very
devoutly, and bemoaned his own weakness both inward and outward, saying,
"I dare not knock at thy door, I ly at it scrambling as I may, till thou
come out and take me in; I dare not speak; I look up to thee, and look
for one kiss of Christ's fair face. O when wilt thou come!"

At the fourth conference he charged the minister to go to a secret place
and pray for him, and do it not for the fashion; I know, said he, prayer
will pull Christ out of heaven. The minister said, "What shall we seek,
give us a commission." He answered, "I charge you to tell my beloved,
_that I am sick of love_." The minister desired if they should seek life
or recovery, he said, "Yea, if it be God's good pleasure, for I find my
fear of death now less, and I think God is now loosing the root of the
deep-grown tree of my soul so firmly fastened to this life." The
minister told him, If it were so, he behoved to covenant with God in
dedicating himself and all he had to God and his service, to which he
heartily consented, and after the minister had recited several
scriptures for that purpose, such as Psal. lxxviii. 36. &c. He took
the Bible, and said, Mark other scriptures for me, and he marked 2 Cor.
v. Rev. xxi. and xxii. Psal. xxxviii. John xv. These places he turned
over, and cried often for one love blink, "O Son of God, for one sight
of thy face."

When the minister told him his prayers were heard, he took hold of his
hand and drew him to him, and said with a sigh, Good news indeed, and
desired him and others to tell him what access they had got to God in
Christ for his soul,--They told him they had got access, at which he
rejoiced, and said, "Then will I believe and wait on, I cannot think but
my beloved is coming leaping over the hills."

When friends or others came to visit him, whom he knew feared God, he
would cause them go and pray for him, and sent some of them expresly to
the