Lord to Peter came powerfully into his mind--'Satan hath desired
to have you'; and so strong was the impression they made, that he
thought some man addressed them to him; he even turned his head to
see who it was that thus spoke to him. This was the forerunner of
a cloud and a storm that was coming upon him. It was the gathering
up of Satan's mighty strength, to have, if possible, overwhelmed
him. His narrative of this internal tempest in his soul--this last
great struggle with the powers of darkness--is very striking.

'About the space of a month after, a very great storm came down
upon me, which handled me twenty times worse than all I had met
with before; it came stealing upon me, now by one piece, then by
another. First, all my comfort was taken from me; then darkness
seized upon me; after which, whole floods of blasphemies, both
against God, Christ, and the Scriptures, were poured upon my spirit,
to my great confusion and astonishment. These blasphemous thoughts
were such as also stirred up questions in me against the very
being of God, and of his only beloved Son. As, whether there were
in truth a God or Christ, or no? And whether the Holy Scriptures
were not rather a fable, and cunning story, than the holy and pure
Word of God.

'These suggestions, with many others, which at this time I may not,
dare not utter, neither by word nor pen, did make such a seizure upon
my spirit, and did so overweigh my heart, both with their number,
continuance, and fiery force, that I felt as if there were nothing
else but these from morning to night within me, and as though indeed
there could be room for nothing else; and also concluded, that God
had, in very wrath to my soul, given me up unto them, to be carried
away with them as with a mighty whirlwind.