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William Huntingdon (Pened that I was under sore)
pened that I was under sore temptations and desertions. the Bible, too, appeared a sealed book, insomuch that I could not furnish myself with a text; nor durst I leave my work in order to study or read the Bible; if I did, my little ones would soon want bread; my business would also run very cross at those times." His earnings did not then amount to more than eight shillings per week. Even when his state grew better, when he got his first " parsonic livery" on his back, he could not study at his ease. "My little cot (he says) was placed in a very vulgar neighbourhood, and the windows were so very low, that I could not study at any of them, without being exposed to the view of my enemies; who often threw stones through the glass, or saluted me with a volley of oaths or imprecations." This must have been painful enough to one whose "memory was naturally bad." "Providence had long furnished him with very superior accommodations. many years of itinerant and irregular preaching, William Huntingdon," weary of living at Thames Ditton, secretly longed to leave it, fully persuaded that he "should end his "ministry in London." 66 After Having unsuccessfully laboured in the vineyard of the country," and as he "did not see that God had any thing more for him to do there, he, like one Durant of late, “saw the Lord himself open the door" for his removal. He had resolved to be off; and he contrived to get off. He was now, as he himself says, "to perch upon the thick boughs." Ditton was to be left for London. Yet had poor Ditton not been so unkind to him. "Some few years before I was married," says Mr. H. "all my personal effects used to be carried in my hand, or on my shoulders, in one or two large handkerchiefs; but after marriage, for some few years, I used to carry all the goods that we had gotten, on my shoulders, in a large sack : but when we removed from Thames Ditton to London, we loaded two large carts with furniture and other necessaries; besides a post-chaise, well filled with children and cats دو Being viewed as ludicrous while in the country, he was fearful of being considered as ridiculous elsewhere. I here transcribe his words: "At this (says Mr. H.-having been advertised in Margaret-street Chapel,) I was sorely offended, being very much averse to preaching in London, for several reasons. First, because I had been told it abounded so much with all sorts of errors, that I was afraid of falling into them, there were so many that lay in wait to deceive. Secondly, because I had no learning, and therefore feared I should not be able to deliver myself with any degree of propriety; and as I knew nothing of Greek or Hebrew, nor even of the English Grammar, that I should be exposed to the scourging tongue of every critic in London." .