His love to Christ and souls, made him very desirous _to spend, and be spent in the work of the ministry_. Accordingly he complied with the first clear call to preach the everlasting gospel. And though he was but two and twenty years old, yet he came to that work like one that understood what preaching was. He was a workman that needed not be ashamed, that was thoroughly furnished for every good word and work; one that hated sin with a perfect hatred, and loved holiness with all his soul; one that knew _the terrors of the Lord_, and how to beseech sinners _in Christ’s stead to be reconciled unto God_: one, in whom learning and holiness did as it were strive which could excel. He never preached publicly but twice; but he came to it, as if he had been used to it forty years; delivering the word of God with that power and majesty, with that tenderness and compassion, with that readiness and freedom, that it made his hearers amazed. He spoke nothing to others but what was the language of his heart, and the fruit of great experience, and which one might easily perceive had no small impression first upon his own spirit. His _first_ and _last_ sermons were upon communion with God, out of _Job_ xxii. 21. A subject that few Christians under heaven were better able to manage than himself: for he did for some time maintain such an intimate familiarity with God, that he seemed to converse with him as a friend with another. This he began whilst he was here: but the perfecting his acquaintance with God, was a work for another world. He kept an exact watch over his thoughts, words and actions, and made a review of all, at least once a day. He kept a _diary_, in which he set down every evening what the frame of his spirit had been all the day, especially in every duty. He took notice what profit he received; what returns from that far country; what answers of prayer, what deadness and flatness, and what observable providences. He set down the substance of what he had been doing: and any wanderings of thoughts, or passion. It cannot be conceived by them who do not practise this, to what a good account it turned. This made him retain a grateful remembrance of mercy, and live in a constant adoring of divine goodness; this brought him to a very intimate acquaintance with his own heart; kept his spirit low, and fitted him for free communications from God; this made him more lively and active; helped him to walk humbly with God; and made him speak more affectionately and experimentally to others of the things of God. In a word, this left a sweet calm upon his spirits, because he every night made even his accounts; and if his sheets should prove his winding-sheet, it had been all one; for his work was done; so that death could not surprize him. CHAPTER V. _An account of the latter part of his life._