Page:The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., late of Pembroke-College, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Rt. Hon. the Countess of Huntingdon (1771 Volume 2).djvu/40

 me from the, so that death in its ugliest shapes did not at all terrify me. About five in the afternoon we met in my house. I first exhorted them to keep their minds close to the, and if the mob came, not at all to resist, but to make way for them to come to me, and let them do what the would permit. I then prayed and sung that hymn, "Our lives, our blood, &c." When we had so done, in came the mob, demanding me to come down. I asked, by what authority they did so? They swore they would have me. Then said I, so you shall. So they took me to the lime-*pit, and threw me in. But O what a power of fell on my soul! I thought, with Stephen, the heavens opened to my sight, and the was ready, if I had died, to receive me. I believe my undaunted courage shook some. I told them, I should meet them at the judgment, and then their faces would gather paleness. They let me out, and I came home and kneeled down with the people that were there, and prayed to, and praised. After that, I exhorted from the three first verses of the third chapter of the first epistle of John. And when I was just concluding, in came the mob again, and took me to a brook to throw me in there. One, who was a persecutor but a few days before, endeavoured to hinder them; but they took me away, and led me all up the town. I had a sweet walk, and talked and reasoned with the persecutors all the way. My heart was full of love. Before I had gone far, all but one agreed to let me go back again, but he insisted upon my going. I told them, the law was open against them, nevertheless I was willing to suffer any thing for. Then they told me, if I would forbear preaching but for a month, they would let me go; I told them, I would make no such promise. So forward I went. One of them threw me in, and I went to the bottom, but I came up again, with my hands clasped together. I did not desire to come out, till they fetched me. Accordingly, in jumped one or two of them and took me out; but then one maliciously and cowardly pushed me in again, and much bruised and cut one of my legs against a stone. Some of the others were going to throw him in for so doing. I came home talking to them. Many seemed to repent of what they had done, and promised to molest me no more. I believe,