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their
cry was, What shall we do to be saved? The place of resort was now
altered, it was no longer the tavern, but the minister's house that was
thronged far more than ever the tavern had been wont to be.
There is a very great variety, as to the degree of fear and trouble that
persons are exercised with, before they attain any comfortable evidences
of pardon and acceptance with God. Some are from the beginning carried
on with abundantly more encouragement and hope than others. Some have
had ten times less trouble of mind than others, in whom yet the issue
seems to be the same. Some have had such a sense of the displeasure of
God, and the great danger they were in of damnation, that they could not
sleep at nights; and many have said that when they have laid down, the
thoughts of sleeping in such a condition have been frightful to them;
they have scarcely been free from terror while asleep, and they have
awakened with fear, heaviness, and distress still abiding on their
spirits. It has been very common, that the deep and fixed concern on
persons minds, has had a painful influence on their bodies, and given
disturbance to animal nature. The awful apprehensions persons have had
of their misery, have for the most part been increasing, the nearer they
have approached to deliverance; though they often pass through many
changes and alterations in the frame and circumstances of their minds.
Sometimes they th
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