to a vehement hunger and desire to be one of that number that did
sit in the sunshine. Now also I should pray wherever I was; whether
at home or abroad, in house or field, and should also often, with
lifting up of heart, sing that of the fifty-first Psalm, "O Lord,
consider my distress."'[80]

In this striking reverie we discover the budding forth of that great
genius which produced most beautiful flowers and delicious fruit,
when it became fully developed in his allegories.

While this trial clouded his spirits, he was called to endure
temptations which are common to most, if not all, inquiring souls,
and which frequently produce much anxiety. He plunged into the
university problems of predestination, before he had completed his
lower grammar-school exercises on faith and repentance. Am I one of
the elect? or has the day of grace been suffered to pass by never
to return? 'Although he was in a flame to find the way to heaven
and glory,' these questions afflicted and disquieted him, so that
the very strength of his body was taken away by the force and
power thereof. 'Lord, thought I, what if I should not be elected!
It may be you are not, said the tempter; it may be so, indeed
thought I. 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 talk of your being saved; "for it is
neither of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy."

'By these things I was driven to my wit's end, not knowing what to
say, or how to answer these temptations. Indeed, I little thought
that Satan had thus assaulted me, but that rather it was my own