About the latter end of August, I again fell under great darkness; it seemed as if the presence of God was clean gone for ever; though I was not so much distressed about my spiritual state as I was at my being shut out from God's presence, as I then sensibly was. But it pleased that Lord to return graciously to me, not long after.
In the beginning of September, I went to college, and entered there; but with some degree of reluctancy, fearing lest I should not be able to lead a life of strict religion, in the midst of so many temptations. After this, in the vacancy before I went to tarry at college, it pleased God to visit my soul with clearer manifestations of himself and his grace. I was spending some time in prayer and self-examination; and the Lord by his grace so shined in my heart, that I enjoyed full assurance of his favour for that time; and my soul was unspeakably refreshed with divine and heavenly enjoyments. At this time especially, as well as some others, sundry passages of God's Word opened to my soul with divine clearness, power, and sweetness, so as to appear exceeding precious, and with clear and certain evidence of it being the Word of God. I enjoyed considerable sweetness in religion all the winter following.
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