The next opportunity, I gave him a history of the ancient patriarchs, showing the simplicity, integrity, and holiness of their lives, extolling their faith in God, and promptness in obeying all his commandments.  William became much more thoughtful than I had seen him upon any former occasion.  What I told him he generally related to his friends at table.  Their conversation was now more manly and rational; formerly they conversed only about horses, hounds, dress, &c. now about the history of the world, its creation, the remarkable men who had lived in it, the different changes which had taken place in empires, kingdoms, &c.

He was wonderfully taken with the account I gave of that nation whom God had chosen for his own people, viz. the Jews.  I told him how wonderfully God had delivered them from captivity in Egypt; how he drowned in the Red Sea an army of Egyptians, with their king at their head, who were pursuing the Jews.  But when I told him of the holy law of God, and expatiated a little upon it, he shrugged up his shoulders and said it was too strict for him.  Well, William, said I, cursed is every one who continueth not in all things written or commanded in that law.  He pushed me aside, ran down stairs, and soon became sick and feverish.  His mother begged of him to tell her of his sudden distress.  He said I had alarmed him exceedingly; that he found himself a great sinner, and saw no mercy for him in the world to come.  His mother came running up stairs, and in the heat of passion locked me into my old cell, where I remained in close confinement for some days.  But William could not dispense with my company; accordingly I was sent for.  I found him very pale and pensive; however, I faithfully told him, that the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart are only evil, and that continually.  He said he lately began to feel that; he had tried to make it better, but could not.  Upon this a stranger entered the room, and I was hid at the back of a sofa, because the family were quite ashamed that I should be seen talking with William.  The stranger remarked that he had seen him talking with me, assured him that I would do him much more harm than good:  that I had occasioned great confusion in the world, by driving many people mad.  On this, they all joined in scandalizing my character, and I was again confined to my old cell.

But when my God enables me to fix an arrow in any sinner’s heart, the whole universe cannot draw it out.  William was always uneasy when I was not with him; consequently he paid me many a stolen visit.  I told him one day not to trust in riches, for they often took to themselves wings, and flew from one man to another, as God directed them.  Job once possessed houses, lands, sheep, a flourishing family, all of which were taken from him in a few hours; but God never forsook him.