he book; and with my heart as well as my hands
lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud,
"Jesus, thou son of David! Jesus, thou exalted Prince and Saviour! give
me repentance!" This was the first time I could say, in the true sense
of the words, that I prayed in all my life; for now I prayed with a sense
of my condition, and a true Scripture view of hope, founded on the
encouragement of the Word of God; and from this time, I may say, I began
to hope that God would hear me.

Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, "Call on Me, and I
will deliver thee," in a different sense from what I had ever done
before; for then I had no notion of anything being called _deliverance_,
but my being delivered from the captivity I was in; for though I was
indeed at large in the place, yet the island was certainly a prison to
me, and that in the worse sense in the world. But now I learned to take
it in another sense: now I looked back upon my past life with such
horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of
God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort.
As for my solitary life, it was nothing. I did not so much as pray to be
delivered from it or think of it; it was all of no consideration in
comparison to this. And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall
read it, that whenever they come to a true sense of things, they will
find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from
affliction.

But, leaving this part, I return to my Journal.

My condition began now to be, though not less miserable as to my way of
living, yet much easier to my mind: and my thoughts being directed, by a
constant reading the Scripture and praying to God, to things of a higher
nature, I had a great deal of comfort within, which till now I knew
nothing of; also, my health and strength returned, I bestirred myself to
furnish myself with everything that I wanted, and make my way of living
as regular as I could.

From the 4th of July to the 14th I was chiefly employed in walking about
with my gun in my hand, a little and a little at a time, as a man that
was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness; for it is hardly
to be imagined how low I was, and to what weakness I was reduced. The
application which I made use of was perfectly new, and perhaps which had
never cured an ague before; neither can I recommend it to any to
practise, by thi