given his consent.

Very soon afterwards I was led to see in some degree, and since then much
more fully, the error into which I had fallen respecting the lot. In the
first place it was altogether wrong, that I, a child of God, should have
any thing to do with so worldly a system as that of the lottery. But it
was also unscriptural to go to the lot at all for the sake of ascertaining
the Lord's mind, and this I ground on the following reasons. We have
neither a commandment of God for it, nor the example of our Lord, nor that
of the apostles, after the Holy Spirit had been given on the day of
Pentecost. 1. We have many exhortations in the word of God to seek to know
His mind by prayer and searching the Holy Scriptures, but no passage which
exhorts us to use the lot. 2. The example of the apostles (Acts i.) in
using the lot, in the choice of an apostle, in the room of Judas Iscariot,
is the only passage, which can be brought in favour of the lot, from the
New Testament, (and to the Old we have not to go under this dispensation,
for the sake of ascertaining how we ought to live as disciples of Christ).
Now concerning this circumstance we have to remember, that the Spirit was
not yet given (John vii. 39; ch. xiv. 16, 17; ch. xvi. 7, 13), by whose
teaching especially it is that we may know the mind of the Lord; and hence
we find, that, after the day of Pentecost, the lot was no more used, but
the apostles gave themselves to prayer and fasting to ascertain how they
ought to act.

In addition to this I would give my own experience concerning the lot,
but only by way of illustrating the view just given; for the word of God
is quite sufficient on the subject. And first as it regards my using the
lot in the above case. How did it turn out? I had repeatedly asked the
Lord to show me His mind, whether He would have me to be a missionary or
not. But not coming to a satisfactory assurance, and being very anxious to
have the matter settled, I found out in my own judgment a much shorter
way, namely, the lot. I ought to have said to myself, how can an
individual, so ignorant as you are, think about being a teacher to others?
For though I was truly begotten again, and rested upon Christ alone for
salvation, still I should not have been able to give a clear explanation
of even the most elementary truths of the Gospel. How then could I be fit
to teach others? The first thing therefore I ought to have done, was, to
seek through much prayer