said a word to him, and he then referred them to some passage in scripture, which he said would suit them, and then they doubled them down. But I observed that he never referred them to any passage where the doctrine of God's election is mentioned. This gave me clearly to see, that whether an arminian be in his senses, or mad; whether he be in the land of hope, or in hell, he will still hold his principles. This appears plain by the Saviour's parable of the rich man, who desired Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house, to warn his brethren; but when Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them;" he answered, "Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." But Abraham stuck to his text saying, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

These arminian gentlemen, who have got such a stock of human talents to trade with, vainly imagine that the fears of death, hell, and damnation, are sufficient to alarm them to perform all the task that God requires of them; this their way is their folly.

The gentleman that was with me, desired me to give the prophet a word, that he might begin to prophesy concerning me, but I would not. The gentleman told him, that I was a preacher of his brother, as he was pleased to term Christ: the madman said, Yes, but he has not been diligent;

they told him they thought I had: he answered, that I had not been faithful; they told him, Yes, they thought I had: he said, that his Father, as he was pleased to term God, would scourge me, &c. At this I laughed heartily, which provoked the prophet exceedingly, and caused him, with a pale face, and much bitterness, to tell me that if I laughed at him, I laughed at God. My friends again desired me to speak a word to him, and after much importunity I mentioned a word which I thought he would not like, in the state he appeared to me to be in; for I look upon it, that a person who is sunk into despair and madness, is wholly destitute of hope, either in God, or in himself, therefore I mentioned the word, hope, to him. Hope!' said he, 'away with hope.' This fully convinced me that he was without God, and having no hope in the world: for Paul says, "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

The man that casts away hope, casts away the anchor of his soul; the word of his God, and the salvation of the Saviour; but we have not so learned Christ.

The gentleman that was with me, desired him to prophesy something concerning me; he at last was prevailed on to look at the wrinkles in the palm of my hand, and to give me likewise a pat on the hand. What he could find out by the wrinkles of my hand, I know not; but I know it is the way that vagrant fortunetellers use.

I have read in Cave's Lives of the Fathers, that Julian, the great apostate, divined by the liver of a woman, whom his priest had killed for that purpose, just before the judgment of God overtook him; and I read that the King of Babylon divined by the same article; but whether it was a human liver, or the liver of a brute, I know not; but it was one of them; "For the King of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver."

Others, in old time, have divined by the flight of birds, the smoke of chimnies, the motions of insects, the croaking of reptiles. But all our modern conjurors divine by the spots of cards, the wrinkles of the hand, the sticking of pins, or the grounds of a tea-cup.

Old Doll Bridget, the famous Norwood gipsey, used to peep at the wrinkles of the hand, the same as this arminian conjuror did. But surely the Spirit of God never sends a believer to seek instruction at the hand of any such; but tells us to have nothing to do with wizards that peep and mutter, but to seek unto our God: to the living from the dead? Isaiah viii. 19.

Before we departed from him, he spoke some words which made me shudder: he said, 'I have set my brother upon the throne now, if my Father don't save me through my brother, I will tell him that he is a liar.' By brother, he meant Christ :

and by father he meant God. This shewed me the rebellion of his heart. I believe some of the hypocritical tribe have got a little comfort from him, which has lasted for awhile; for I am told, that some who are very strongly suspected to be of that number, have gone to him, to whom he has said, 'Come in, thou blessed of the Lord,' and applied a passage out of the prophet Isaiah to them, "Oh, thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted; behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours," &c.

The friends that went with me, asked me, after we had left him, what I thought of him: I said, that I thought the devil was in him, and I am still of the same mind. The Lord keep us from all such delusions; we have no occasion to go to mad persons to cast the nativity of our spiritual birth; the testimony of the Spirit within, and the written testimony, are quite sufficient for that purpose. I did not think to have sent you so long an epistle about a madman; but as you seem so very inquisitive, I have related all that I know about him.

I am credibly informed that some poor weak minds have gone to him, to know whether they belong to God or not; and if he has spoken comfortably to them, and called them the blessed of the Lord, or the children of God, a deal of dependence has been put upon this delirous oracle; and after a time they have visited him again, and taken their neighbours with them. I think the

Saviour's predictions are daily fulfilled; "If it were possible, they should deceive the very elect."

That which deceives so many of these simple ones, for I can in conscience call them no better, is his having so much scripture in his head, and his seeming to have such a love to Christ, and talking so comfortably about him. This is the devil transformed into an angel of light. I once knew a man who was a violent persecutor of the gospel, and even of his wife, whom God called under my ministry, who had long laboured against the profession of his wife; but when he found he could not drive the grace of God out of her heart, he attempted to hang himself, but was prevented. He was a very strict Pharisee, therefore further from the kingdom of God than publicans and harlots. However, at last he was prevailed on to come and hear me; and I believe his carnal conscience did her office sufficient to shew him that he was wrong, and his wife was right. Directly after this, God struck him with a stroke of the palsy, which turned him into an idiot; and after that, he attended me for some time; he soon after began to talk much about Jesus Christ, but in a childish way, as the Moravians do. However, at last he was seized with a frenzy in his head, and lost all his rationality. During his affliction I visited him several times, and he kept continually talking about Christ, and of his love to Christ. However, I thought the devil had got the pos