[20] great pain and effort, he was at last enabled to work his way into the sunshine, and sit down with the saints, in the light and warmth thereof. But now a new trouble assailed him. Like Milton's metaphysical spirits, who sat apart,
And reasoned of foreknowledge, will, and fate,he grappled with one of those great questions which have always perplexed and baffled human inquiry, and upon which much has been written to little purpose. He was tortured with anxiety to know whether, according to the Westminster formula, he was elected to salvation or damnation. His old adversary vexed his soul with evil suggestions, and even quoted Scripture to enforce them. ‘It may be you are not elected,’ said the Tempter; and the poor tinker thought the supposition altogether too probable. ‘Why, then,’ said Satan, ‘you had as good leave off, and strive no farther; for if, indeed, you should not be elected and chosen of God, there is no hope of your being saved; for it is neither in him that willeth nor in him that runneth, but in God who showeth mercy.’ At length, when, as he says, he was about giving up the ghost of all his hopes, this passage fell with weight upon his spirit: ‘Look at the generations of old, and see; did ever any trust in God, and were confounded?’ Comforted by these words, he opened his Bible to note them, but the most diligent search and inquiry of his neighbors failed to discover them. At length his eye fell upon them in the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus. This, he says, somewhat doubted him at first, as the book was not canonical; but in the end he took courage and comfort
