acco and sing psalms. Tobacco was a thing I did not love, and psalms
I was not in a state to sing. Then I heard of a priest living about
Tamworth, but I found him only like an empty, hollow cask. Later I went
to another, one Mackam, a priest of high account. He would needs give me
some physic, and I was to have been let blood. I thought them miserable
comforters, and saw they were all as nothing to me, for they could not
reach my condition. And this struck me, "that to be bred at Oxford or
Cambridge was not enough to make a man fit to be a minister of Christ."
So neither these, nor any of the dissenting people, could I join with,
but was a stranger to all, relying wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was now opened in me "that God, who made the world, did not dwell in
temples made with hands," but in people's hearts, and His people were
His temple. During all this time I was never joined in profession of
religion with any, being afraid both of professor and profane. For which
reason I kept myself much a stranger, seeking heavenly wisdom and
getting knowledge from the Lord.

When all my hopes in them were gone, then--oh, then--I heard a voice
which said, "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy
condition." And when I heard it my heart did leap for joy, and the Lord
stayed my desires upon himself.

_II.--Preaching and Persecution_

Then came people from far and near to see me, and I was made to speak
and open things to them. And there was one Brown, who had great
prophecies and sights upon his death-bed of me. He spoke only of what I
should be made instrumental by the Lord to bring forth. And I had great
openings and prophecies, and spoke of the things of God.

And many who heard me spread the fame thereof, and the Lord's power got
ground, and many were turned from the darkness to the light within the
compass of these three years--1646, 1647, and 1648. Moreover, when the
Lord sent me forth, he forbade me to "put off my hat" to any, high or
low. And I was required to "thee" and "thou" all, men and women, without
any respect to rich or poor, great or small. But, oh, the rage that then
was in the priests, magistrates, professors, and people of all sorts;
but especially in priests and professors! Oh, the scorn, the heat and
fury that arose! Oh, the blows, punchings, beatings, and imprisonments
that we underwent!

About this time I was sorely exercised in speaking and writing to judges
and justices t