no remarks on it, and make as few
additions to it, leaving everyone to judge for himself. We have heard
much of the rage of fanaticism in former days, but nothing to this.

The Private Memoirs and
Confessions of a Sinner
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF

PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A SINNER

My life has been a life of trouble and turmoil of change and
vicissitude; of anger and exultation; of sorrow and of vengeance. My
sorrows have all been for a slighted gospel, and my vengeance has been
wreaked on its adversaries. Therefore, in the might of Heaven, I will
sit down and write: I will let the wicked of this world know what I
have done in the faith of the promises, and justification by grace,
that they may read and tremble, and bless their gods of silver and gold
that the minister of Heaven was removed from their sphere before their
blood was mingled with their sacrifices.

I was born an outcast in the world, in which I was destined to act so
conspicuous a part. My mother was a burning and a shining light, in the
community of Scottish worthies, and in the days of her virginity had
suffered much in the persecution of the saints. But it so pleased
Heaven that, as a trial of her faith, she was married to one of the
wicked; a man all over spotted with the leprosy of sin. As well might
they have conjoined fire and water together, in hopes that they would
consort and amalgamate, as purity and corruption: She fled from his
embraces the first night after their marriage, and from that time forth
his iniquities so galled her upright heart that she quitted his society
altogether, keeping her own apartments in the same house with him.

I was the second son of this unhappy marriage, and, ere ever I was
born, my father according to the flesh disclaimed all relation or
connection with me, and all interest in me, save what the law compelled
him to take, which was to grant me a scanty maintenance; and had it not
been for a faithful minister of the gospel, my mother's early
instructor, I should have remained an outcast from the church visible.
He took pity on me, admitting me not only into that, but into the bosom
of his own household and ministry also, and to him am I indebted, under
Heaven, for the high conceptions and glorious discernment between good
and evil, right and wrong, which I attained even at an early age. It
was he who directed my studies aright, both in the learning of the
ancient fathers and the doctrines o