ting of being accepted; and in this condition he
left me the first night.

He visited me again the next morning, and went on with his method of
explaining the terms of divine mercy, which according to him consisted
of nothing more, or more difficult, than that of being sincerely
desirous of it, and willing to accept it; only a sincere regret for,
and hatred of, those things I had done, which rendered me so just an
object of divine vengeance. I am not able to repeat the excellent
discourses of this extraordinary man; 'tis all that I am able to do, to
say that he revived my heart, and brought me into such a condition that
I never knew anything of in my life before. I was covered with shame
and tears for things past, and yet had at the same time a secret
surprising joy at the prospect of being a true penitent, and obtaining
the comfort of a penitent--I mean, the hope of being forgiven; and so
swift did thoughts circulate, and so high did the impressions they had
made upon me run, that I thought I could freely have gone out that
minute to execution, without any uneasiness at all, casting my soul
entirely into the arms of infinite mercy as a penitent.

The good gentleman was so moved also in my behalf with a view of the
influence which he saw these things had on me, that he blessed God he
had come to visit me, and resolved not to leave me till the last
moment; that is, not to leave visiting me.

It was no less than twelve days after our receiving sentence before any
were ordered for execution, and then upon a Wednesday the dead warrant,
as they call it, came down, and I found my name was among them. A
terrible blow this was to my new resolutions; indeed my heart sank
within me, and I swooned away twice, one after another, but spoke not a
word. The good minister was sorely afflicted for me, and did what he
could to comfort me with the same arguments, and the same moving
eloquence that he did before, and left me not that evening so long as
the prisonkeepers would suffer him to stay in the prison, unless he
would be locked up with me all night, which he was not willing to be.

I wondered much that I did not see him all the next day, it being the
day before the time appointed for execution; and I was greatly
discouraged, and dejected in my mind, and indeed almost sank for want
of the comfort which he had so often, and with such success, yielded me
on his former visits. I waited with great impatience, and under the
great