temptations which, but for their conversion, could not have existed.

The temptation to which we have alluded, took this strange and
dreadful form--to sell and part with his Saviour, to exchange him for
the things of this life--for anything. This horrid thought he could
not shake out of his mind, day nor night, for many months together.
It intermixed itself with every occupation, however sacred, or
however trivial. "He could not eat his food, stoop for a pin, chop a
stick, nor cast his eye to look on this or that, but still the
temptation would come, 'Sell Christ for this, sell Christ for that,
sell him, sell him.' Sometimes it would run in my thoughts not so
little as a hundred times together, Sell him, sell him, sell him:
Against which, I may say, for whole hours together, I have been
forced to stand as continually leaning and forcing my spirit against
it; lest haply, before I was aware, some wicked thought might arise
in my heart that might consent thereto: and sometimes the tempter
would make me believe I had consented to it; but then should I be as
tortured on a rack for whole days together."--"But, to be brief, one
morning as I did lie in my bed, I was, as at other times, most
fiercely assaulted with this temptation to sell and part with Christ-
-the wicked suggestion still running in my mind, Sell him, sell him,
sell him, sell him, as fast as a man could speak, against which I
also, as at other times, answered, No, no; not for thousands,
thousands, thousands, at least twenty times together. But at last,
after much striving, even until I was almost out of breath, I felt
this thought pass through my heart, Let him go, if he will; and I
thought also that I felt my heart freely consent thereto. Oh, the
diligence of Satan! Oh, the desperateness of man's heart! Now was
the battle won, and down fell I, as a bird that is shot from the top
of a tree, into great guilt and fearful despair. Thus getting out of