fliction."

5. Her father coming to her, said, "Be of good comfort, my child, for
the Lord will be near to thee and us: he will not forsake us, though he
chastens." "Yea, father," said she, "our heavenly Father doth chasten us
for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness; no
chastisement seemeth for the present to be joyous, but grievous; but
afterward it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them which
are exercised thereby."

6. After this, with her eyes lifted towards heaven, she said, "Be
merciful to me a sinner, according to thy word."

7. She greatly abhorred sin, and, with much grief and self-detestation,
reflected upon it; but that which lay the closest to her heart was the
depravity of her nature. She often cried out in the words of the
psalmist, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me." She could never lay herself low enough under a sense of
that sin which she brought with her into the world.

8. That scripture dwelt much on her tongue, "The sacrifices of God are a
broken heart; a broken and contrite spirit, O God, thou wilt not
despise." "O for that brokenness of heart," said she, "which flows from
faith, and for that faith which is built upon Christ, who is the alone
and proper sacrifice for sin."

9. Then she discoursed of the nature of faith, and desired that the 11th
of the Hebrews should be read unto her: at the reading of which she
cried out, "O what a steadfast faith was Abraham's, which made him
willing to offer up his own and only son! Faith is indeed the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

10. Her father and mother, seeing her, burst into tears; upon which she
pleaded with them to be patient under the hand of God. "O," said she,
"why do you weep over me, seeing you have no reason to question: but, if
the Lord takes me, it shall be well with me to all eternity? You ought
to be well satisfied, seeing it is said, 'God is in heaven, and doth
whatever pleaseth him.' And do you not pray every day that the will of
God may be done upon earth as it is in heaven? Now, father, this is
God's will, that I should lie upon this sick bed, and die of this
disease; shall we not be content when our prayers are answered? I will,
as long as I live, pray that God's will be done, not mine."

11. "Doth not," said she, "the pestilence come from God? Why else doth
the Scripture say, Shall there be evil in the city which I have not
sen