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Feature Extraction and
Image Processing for
Computer Vision
Fourth Edition
Mark S. Nixon Electronics and Computer Science,
University of Southampton

Alberto S. Aguado Foundry, London

Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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We would like to dedicate this book to our parents. To Gloria and to Joaquin Aguado, and to
the late Brenda and Ian Nixon.
Preface
What is new in the fourth edition?
Society makes increasing use of image processing and computer vision: manufacturing sys-
tems, medical image analysis, robotic cars, and biometrics are splendid examples of where
society benefits from this technology. To achieve this there has been, and continues to be,
much research and development. The research develops into books, and so the books need
updating. We have always been interested to note that our book contains stock image pro-
cessing and computer vision techniques which are yet to be found in other regular textbooks
(OK, some are to be found in specialist books, though these rarely include much tutorial
material). This was true of the previous editions and certainly occurs here.
A big change in the Fourth Edition is the move to Python and Matlab, to replace the
earlier use of Mathcad and Matlab. We have reordered much of the material and added new
material where appropriate. There continue to be many new techniques for feature extraction
and description. There has been quite a revolution in image processing and computer vision
whilst the Fourth Edition was in process, namely the emergence of deep learning. This is
noted throughout, and a new chapter is added on this topic. As well as deep learning, other
additions include filtering techniques (non-local means and bilateral filtering), keypoint
detectors, saliency operators, optical flow techniques, feature descriptions (Krawtchouk
moments), region-based analysis (watershed, MSER and superpixels), spaceetime interest
points and more distance measures (histogram intersection, Chi2 (c2) and the earth mover’s
distance). We do not include statistical pattern recognition approaches, and for that it is best
to look elsewhere (this book would otherwise be enormous). Our interest here is in the
implementation and usage of feature extraction. As such, this bookdIOHOdremains the
most up-to-date text in feature extraction and image processing in computer vision.
As there are four editions now, it is appropriate to have a recap on the previous addi-
tions. Each edition corrected the previous production errors, some of which we must confess
are our own, and included more tutorial material where appropriate. (If you find an error,
there is a promise of free beer in the next section.) The completely new material in the Third
Edition was on moving object detection, tracking and description. We also extended the book
to use colour, and more modern techniques for object extraction and description especially
those capitalising on wavelets and on scale space. The Second Edition updated and extended
with new material on smoothing, geometric active contours, keypoint detection and mo-
ments. Some material has been filtered out at each stage to retain consistency. Our apologies
if your favourite, or your own, technique has been omitted. Feature extraction and image
processing is as large as it is enjoyable.

Why did we write this book?

We always expected to be asked: ‘why on earth write a new book on computer vision?’, and we
have been. Fair question: there are already many good books on computer vision already out
in the bookshops, as you will find referenced later, so why add to them. Part of the answer is
that any textbook is a snapshot of material that exists prior to it. Computer vision, the art of
processing images stored within a computer, has seen a considerable amount of research by

xix
xx Preface

highly qualified people, and the volume of research would appear even to have increased in
recent years. That means many new techniques have been developed, and many of the more
recent approaches have yet to migrate to textbooks. It is not just the new research: part of the
speedy advance in computer vision technique has left some areas covered only in scanty
detail. By the nature of research, one cannot publish material on technique that is seen more
to fill historical gaps, rather than to advance knowledge. This is again where a new text can
contribute.
Finally, the technology itself continues to advance. This means that there is new
hardware, new programming languages and new programming environments. In particular
for computer vision, the advance of technology means that computing power and memory
are now relatively cheap. It is certainly considerably cheaper than when computer vision was
starting as a research field. One of the authors here notes that his phone has more consid-
erably more memory, is faster, has bigger disk space and better graphics than the computer
that served the entire university of his student days. And he is not that old! One of the more
advantageous recent changes brought by progress has been the development of mathemat-
ical programming systems. These allow us to concentrate on mathematical technique itself,
rather than on implementation detail. There are several sophisticated flavours of which
Matlab, one of the chosen vehicles here, is (arguably) the most popular. We have been using
these techniques in research and in teaching, they have been of considerable benefit there. In
research, they help us to develop technique faster and to evaluate its final implementation.
For teaching, the power of a modern laptop and a mathematical system combines to show
students, in lectures and in study, not only how techniques are implemented but also how
and why they work with an explicit relation to conventional teaching material.
We wrote this book for these reasons. There is a host of material we could have included
but chose to omit; the taxonomy and structure we use to expose the subject is of our own
construction. By virtue of the enormous breadth of the subject of image processing and
computer vision, we restricted the focus to feature extraction and image processing in
computer vision for this has not only been the focus of our research, and it is also where the
attention of established textbooks, with some exceptions, can be rather sparse. It is, however,
one of the prime targets of applied computer vision, so would benefit from better attention.
We have aimed to clarify some of its origins and development, whilst also exposing imple-
mentation using mathematical systems. As such, we have written this text with our original
aims in mind and maintained the approach through the later editions.

The book and its support

Each chapter of this book presents a package of information concerning feature extraction in
image processing and computer vision. Each package is developed from its origins and later
referenced to material that is more recent. Naturally, there is often theoretical development
prior to implementation. We provide working implementations of most of the major tech-
niques we describe, and applied them to process a selection of imagery. Though the focus of
our own work has been more in analysing medical imagery or in biometrics (the science of
recognising people by behavioural or physiological characteristics, like face recognition), the
techniques are general and can migrate to other application domains.
You will find a host of further supporting information at the book’s website: https://
www.southampton.ac.uk/wmsn/book/. First, you will find the Matlab and Python imple-
mentations that support the text so that you can study the techniques described herein. The
website will be kept up-to-date as possible, for it also contains links to other material such as
 Preface xxi

websites devoted to techniques and to applications, as well as to available software and on-
line literature. Finally, any errata will be reported there. It is our regret and our responsibility
that these will exist, and our inducement for their reporting concerns a pint of beer. If you
find an error that we do not know about (not typos like spelling, grammar and layout) then
use the mailto on the website and we shall send you a pint of good English beer, free!
There is a certain amount of mathematics in this book. The target audience is third or
fourth year students in BSc/BEng/MEng/MSc in electrical or electronic engineering, software
engineering and computer science, or in mathematics or physics, and this is the level of
mathematical analysis here. Computer vision can be thought of as a branch of applied
mathematics, though this does not really apply to some areas within its remit, and certainly
applies to the material herein. The mathematics essentially concerns mainly calculus and
geometry though some of it is rather more detailed than the constraints of a conventional
lecture course might allow. Certainly, not all the material here is covered in detail in un-
dergraduate courses at Southampton.
The book starts with an overview of computer vision hardware, software and established
material, with reference to the most sophisticated vision system yet ‘developed’: the human
vision system. Though the precise details of the nature of processing that allows us to see
have yet to be determined, there is a considerable range of hardware and software that allows
us to give a computer system the capability to acquire, process and reason with imagery, the
function of ‘sight’. The first chapter also provides a comprehensive bibliography of material
you can find on the subject, not only including textbooks, and also available software and
other material. As this will no doubt be subject to change, it might well be worth consulting
the website for more up-to-date information. The preferences for journal references are those
which are likely to be found in local university libraries or on the web, IEEE Transactions in
particular. These are often subscribed to as they are relatively low cost and are often of very
high quality.
The next chapter concerns the basics of signal processing theory for use in computer
vision. It introduces the Fourier transform that allows you to look at a signal in a new way, in
terms of its frequency content. It also allows us to work out the minimum size of a picture to
conserve information, to analyse the content in terms of frequency and even helps to speed
up some of the later vision algorithms. It does involve a few equations, but it is a new way of
looking at data and at signals and proves to be a rewarding topic of study in its own right. It
extends to wavelets, which are a popular analysis tool in image processing.
We then start to look at basic image processing techniques, where image points are
mapped into a new value first by considering a single point in an original image and then by
considering groups of points. Not only do we see common operations to make a picture’s
appearance better, especially for human vision, but also see how to reduce the effects of
different types of commonly encountered image noise. We shall see some of the modern ways
to remove noise and thus clean images, and we shall look at techniques which process an
image using notions of shape, rather than mapping processes.
The following chapter concerns low-level features that are the techniques that describe
the content of an image, at the level of a whole image rather than in distinct regions of it. One
of the most important processes we shall meet is called edge detection. Essentially, this re-
duces an image to a form of a caricaturist’s sketch, though without a caricaturist’s exagger-
ations. The major techniques are presented in detail, together with descriptions of their
implementation. Other image properties we can derive include measures of curvature, which
developed into modern methods of feature extraction, and measures of movement. The
newer techniques are keypoints that localise image information and feature point detection
in particular. There are other image properties that can also be used for low-level feature
xxii Preface

extraction such as phase congruency and saliency. Together, many techniques can be used to
describe the content of an image.
The edges, the keypoints, the curvature or the motion need to be grouped in some way
so that we can find shapes in an image. Using basic thresholding rarely suffices for shape
extraction. One of the approaches is to group low-level features to find an objectdin a way
this is object extraction without shape. Another approach to shape extraction concerns
analysing the match of low-level information to a known template of a target shape. As this
can be computationally very cumbersome, we then progress to a technique that improves
computational performance, whilst maintaining an optimal performance. The technique is
known as the Hough transform, and it has long been a popular target for researchers in
computer vision who have sought to clarify its basis, improve its speed and increase its ac-
curacy and robustness. Essentially, by the Hough transform we estimate the parameters that
govern a shape’s appearance, where the shapes range from lines to ellipses and even to
unknown shapes.
Some applications of shape extraction require determination of rather more than the
parameters that control appearance, and require to be able to deform or flex to match the
image template. For this reason, the chapter on shape extraction by matching is followed by
one on flexible shape analysis. This leads to interactive segmentation via snakes (active
contours). The later material on the formulation by level-set methods brought new power to
deformable shape extraction techniques. Further, we shall see how we can describe a shape
by its skeleton though with practical difficulty which can be alleviated by symmetry (though
this can be slow to compute) and also how global constraints concerning the statistics of a
shape’s appearance can be used to guide final extraction.
Up to this point, we have not considered techniques that can be used to describe the
shape found in an image. We shall find that the two major approaches concern techniques
that describe a shape’s perimeter and those that describe its area. Some of the perimeter
description techniques, the Fourier descriptors, are even couched using Fourier transform
theory that allows analysis of their frequency content. One of the major approaches to area
description, statistical moments, also has a form of access to frequency components, though
it is of a very different nature to the Fourier analysis. We now include new formulations that
are phrased in discrete terms, rather than as approximations to discrete. One advantage is
that insight into descriptive ability can be achieved by reconstruction which should get back
to the original shape.
We then move on to region-based analysis. This includes some classic computer vision
approaches for segmentation and description, especially superpixels which are a grouping
process reflecting structure and reduced resolution. Then we move to texture which describes
patterns with no known analytical description and has been the target of considerable
research in computer vision and image processing.
Much computer vision, for computational reasons, concerns spatial images only, and
here we describe spatiotemporal techniques detecting and analysing moving objects from
within sequences of images. Moving objects are detected by separating the foreground from
the background, known as background subtraction. Having separated the moving compo-
nents, one approach is then to follow or track the object as it moves within a sequence of
image frames. The moving object can be described and recognised from the tracking infor-
mation or by collecting together the sequence of frames to derive moving object descriptions.
We include material that is germane to the text, such as camera models and co-ordinate
geometry and on methods of colour description. These are aimed to be short introductions
and are germane to much of the material throughout but not needed directly to cover it.
 Preface xxiii

We then describe how to learn and discriminate between objects and patterns. There is
also introductory material on how to classify these patterns against known data, with a se-
lection of the distance measures that can be used within that, and this is a window on a much
larger area, to which appropriate pointers are given. This book is not about machine learning,
and there are plenty of excellent texts that describe that. We have to address deep learning,
since it is a combination of feature extraction and learning. Taking the challenge directly, we
address deep learning and its particular relation with feature extraction and classification.
This is a new way of processing images which has great power and can be very fast. We show
the relationship between the new deep learning approaches and classic feature extraction
techniques.
An underlying premise throughout the text is that there is never a panacea in engi-
neering, it is invariably about compromise. There is material not contained in the book, and
some of this and other related material is referenced throughout the text, especially on-line
material.
In this way, the text covers all major areas of feature extraction and image processing in
computer vision. There is considerably more material in the subject than is presented here:
for example, there is an enormous volume of material in 3D computer vision and in 2D signal
processing which is only alluded to here. Topics that are specifically not included are 3D
processing, watermarking, image coding, statistical pattern recognition and machine
learning. To include all that would lead to a monstrous book that no one could afford, or even
pick up. So we admit we give a snapshot, and we hope more that it is considered to open
another window on a fascinating and rewarding subject.

In gratitude
We are immensely grateful to the input of our colleagues, in particular to Prof Steve Gunn, Dr
John Carter, Dr Sasan Mahmoodi, Dr Kate Farrahi and to Dr Jon Hare. The family who put up
with it are Maria Eugenia and Caz and the nippers. We are also very grateful to past and
present researchers in computer vision at the Vision Learning and Control (VLC)
research group under (or who have survived?) Mark’s supervision at the Electronics and
Computer Science, University of Southampton. As well as Alberto and Steve, these include
Dr Hani Muammar, Prof Xiaoguang Jia, Prof Yan Qiu Chen, Dr Adrian Evans, Dr Colin Davies,
Dr Mark Jones, Dr David Cunado, Dr Jason Nash, Dr Ping Huang, Dr Liang Ng, Dr David
Benn, Dr Douglas Bradshaw, Dr David Hurley, Dr John Manslow, Dr Mike Grant, Bob Roddis,
Prof Andrew Tatem, Dr Karl Sharman, Dr Jamie Shutler, Dr Jun Chen, Dr Andy Tatem, Dr
Chew-Yean Yam, Dr James Hayfron-Acquah, Dr Yalin Zheng, Dr Jeff Foster, Dr Peter
Myerscough, Dr David Wagg, Dr Ahmad Al-Mazeed, Dr Jang-Hee Yoo, Dr Nick Spencer,
Dr Stuart Mowbray, Dr Stuart Prismall, Prof Peter Gething, Dr Mike Jewell, Dr David Wagg,
Dr Alex Bazin, Hidayah Rahmalan, Dr Xin Liu, Dr Imed Bouchrika, Dr Banafshe Arbab-Zavar,
Dr Dan Thorpe, Dr Cem Direkoglu, Dr Sina Samangooei, Dr John Bustard, D. Richard Seely,
Dr Alastair Cummings, Dr Muayed Al-Huseiny, Dr Mina Ibrahim, Dr Darko Matovski,
Dr Gunawan Ariyanto, Dr Sung-Uk Jung, Dr Richard Lowe, Dr Dan Reid, Dr George
Cushen, Dr Ben Waller, Dr Nick Udell, Dr Anas Abuzaina, Dr Thamer Alathari, Dr Musab
Sahrim, Dr Ah Reum Oh, Dr Tim Matthews, Dr Emad Jaha, Dr Peter Forrest, Dr Jaime Lomeli,
Dr Dan Martinho-Corbishley, Dr Bingchen Guo, Dr Jung Sun, Dr Nawaf Almudhahka,
Di Meng, Moneera Alamnakani, and John Evans (for the great hippo photo). There has been
much input from Mark’s postdocs too, omitting those already mentioned, these include
Dr Hugh Lewis, Dr Richard Evans, Dr Lee Middleton, Dr Galina Veres, Dr Baofeng Guo,
xxiv Preface

Dr Michaela Goffredo and Dr Wenshu Zhang. We are also very grateful to other past
Southampton students of BEng and MEng Electronic Engineering, MEng Information
Engineering, BEng and MEng Computer Engineering, MEng Software Engineering and BSc
Computer Science who have pointed our earlier mistakes (and enjoyed the beer), have noted
areas for clarification and in some cases volunteered some of the material herein. Beyond
Southampton, we remain grateful to the reviewers and to those who have written in and made
many helpful suggestions, and to Prof Daniel Cremers, Dr Timor Kadir, Prof Tim Cootes, Prof
Larry Davis, Dr Pedro Felzenszwalb, Prof Luc van Gool, Prof Aaron Bobick, Prof Phil Torr, Dr
Long Tran-Thanh, Dr Tiago de Freitas, Dr Seth Nixon, for observations on and improvements
to the text and/or for permission to use images. Naturally we are very grateful to the Elsevier
editorial team who helped us reach this point, particularly Joanna Collett and Tim Pitts, and
especially to Anitha Sivaraj for her help with the final text. To all of you, our very grateful
thanks.

Final message
We ourselves have already benefited much by writing this book. As we already know, previous
students have also benefited and contributed to it as well. It remains our hope that it does
inspire people to join in this fascinating and rewarding subject that has proved to be such a
source of pleasure and inspiration to its many workers.

Mark S. Nixon
Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton

Alberto S. Aguado
Foundry, London
Nov 2019
Feature Extraction and Image Processing in Computer Vision
 1
Introduction

1.1 Overview
This is where we start, by looking at the human visual system to investigate what is
meant by vision, how a computer can be made to sense pictorial data and how we can
process an image. The overview of this chapter is shown in Table 1.1; you will find a
similar overview at the start of each chapter. References/citations are collected at the
end of each chapter.

1.2 Human and computer vision

A computer vision system processes images acquired from an electronic camera, which
is like the human vision system where the brain processes images derived from the eye.
Computer vision is a rich and rewarding topic for study and research for electronic
engineers, computer scientists and many others. Now that cameras are cheap and widely
available and computer power and memory are vast, computer vision is found in many
places. There are now many vision systems in routine industrial use: cameras inspect
mechanical parts to check size, food is inspected for quality and images used in as-
tronomy benefit from computer vision techniques. Forensic studies and biometrics
(ways to recognise people) using computer vision include automatic face recognition

Table 1.1 Overview of chapter 1.

Main topics Subtopics Main points
Human How the eye works, how visual information is processed Sight, vision, lens, retina, image, colour,
vision and how it can fail. monochrome, processing, brain, visual
system illusions.
Computer How electronic images are formed, how video is fed into Picture elements, pixels, video standard,
vision a computer and how we can process the information camera technologies, pixel technology,
systems using a computer. performance effects, specialist cameras,
video conversion.
Processing How we can process images using the Python computer Programming and processing images,
images language and mathematical packages; introduction to visualisation of results, availability, use.
Python and to Matlab.
Literature Other textbooks and other places to find information on Journals, textbooks, websites and this
image processing, computer vision and feature extraction. book’s website.

Feature Extraction and Image Processing for Computer Vision. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814976-8.00001-4 1

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 Feature Extraction and Image Processing for Computer Vision

and recognising people by the ‘texture’ of their irises. These studies are paralleled by
biologists and psychologists who continue to study how our human vision system works
and how we see and recognise objects (and people).
A selection of (computer) images is given in Fig. 1.1, these images comprise a set of
points or picture elements (usually concatenated to pixels) stored as an array of numbers
in a computer. To recognise faces, based on an image such as Fig. 1.1A, we need to be
able to analyse constituent shapes, such as the shape of the nose, the eyes and the
eyebrows, to make some measurements to describe and then recognise a face. Fig. 1.1B
is an ultrasound image of the carotid artery (which is near the side of the neck and
supplies blood to the brain and the face), taken as a cross-section through it. The top
region of the image is near the skin; the bottom is inside the neck. The image arises from
combinations of the reflections of the ultrasound radiation by tissue. This image comes
from a study aimed to produce three-dimensional models of arteries, to aid vascular
surgery. Note that the image is very noisy, and this obscures the shape of the (elliptical)
artery. Remotely sensed images are often analysed by their texture content. The
perceived texture is different between the road junction and the different types of foliage
seen in Fig. 1.1C. Finally, Fig. 1.1D is a magnetic resonance image (MRI) of a cross
section near the middle of a human body. The chest is at the top of the image, and the
lungs and blood vessels are the dark areas, the internal organs and the fat appear grey.
MRI images are in routine medical use nowadays, owing to their ability to provide high-
quality images.
There are many different image sources. In medical studies, MRI is good for imaging
soft tissue but does not reveal the bone structure (the spine cannot be seen in Fig. 1.1D);
this can be achieved by using computerised tomography which is better at imaging
bone, as opposed to soft tissue. Remotely sensed images can be derived from infrared
(thermal) sensors or synthetic-aperture radar, rather than by cameras, as in Fig. 1.1C.
Spatial information can be provided by two-dimensional arrays of sensors, including
sonar arrays. There are perhaps more varieties of sources of spatial data in medical
studies than in any other area. But computer vision techniques are used to analyse any
form of data, not just the images from cameras.

(A) Face from (B) Artery from (C) Ground by (D) Body by magnetic
a camera ultrasound remote-sensing resonance
FIGURE 1.1 Real images from different sources.
 Chapter 1
Introduction 3

Synthesised images are good for evaluating techniques and finding out how they
work, and some of the bounds on performance. Two synthetic images are shown in
Fig. 1.2. Fig. 1.2A is an image of circles that were specified mathematically. The image is
an ideal case: the circles are perfectly defined and the brightness levels have been
specified to be constant. This type of synthetic image is good for evaluating techniques
which find the borders of the shape (its edges), the shape itself and even for making a
description of the shape. Fig. 1.2B is a synthetic image made up of sections of real image
data. The borders between the regions of image data are exact, again specified by a
program. The image data come from a well-known texture database, the Brodatz album
of textures. This was scanned and stored as a computer image. This image can be used to
analyse how well computer vision algorithms can identify regions of differing texture.
This chapter will show you how basic computer vision systems work, in the context of
the human vision system. It covers the main elements of human vision showing you how
your eyes work (and how they can be deceived!). For computer vision, this chapter covers
the hardware and the software used for image analysis, giving an introduction to Python
and MatlabÒ, the software and mathematical packages, respectively, used throughout
this text to implement computer vision algorithms. Finally, a selection of pointers to
other material is provided, especially those for more detail on the topics covered in this
chapter.

1.3 The human vision system

Human vision is a sophisticated system that senses and acts on visual stimuli. It has
evolved for millions of years, primarily for defence or survival. Intuitively, computer and
human vision appear to have the same function. The purpose of both systems is to
interpret spatial data, data that are indexed by more than one dimension. Even though
computer and human vision are functionally similar, you cannot expect a computer
vision system to exactly replicate the function of the human eye. This is partly because
we do not understand fully how the vision system of the eye and brain works, as we shall

(A) Circles (B) Textures

FIGURE 1.2 Examples of synthesised images.

4 Feature Extraction and Image Processing for Computer Vision

see in this section. Accordingly, we cannot design a system to exactly replicate its
function. In fact, some of the properties of the human eye are useful when developing
computer vision techniques, whereas others are actually undesirable in a computer
vision system. But we shall see computer vision techniques which can to some extent,
replicate -and in some cases even improve upon -the human vision system.
You might ponder this, so put one of the fingers from each of your hands in front of
your face and try to estimate the distance between them. This is difficult, and we are sure
you would agree that your measurement would not be very accurate. Now put your
fingers very close together. You can still tell that they are apart even when the distance
between them is tiny. So human vision can distinguish relative distance well, but is poor
for absolute distance. Computer vision is the other way around: it is good for estimating
absolute difference, but with relatively poor resolution for relative difference. The
number of pixels in the image imposes the accuracy of the computer vision system, but
that does not come until the next chapter. Let us start at the beginning, by seeing how
the human vision system works.
In human vision, the sensing element is the eye from which images are transmitted
via the optic nerve to the brain, for further processing. The optic nerve has insufficient
bandwidth to carry all the information sensed by the eye. Accordingly, there must be
some pre-processing before the image is transmitted down the optic nerve. The human
vision system can be modelled in three parts:
1. the eye  this is a physical model since much of its function can be determined by
pathology;
2. a processing system  this is an experimental model since the function can be
modelled, but not determined precisely; and
3. analysis by the brain  this is a psychological model since we cannot access or
model such processing directly, but only determine behaviour by experiment and
inference.

1.3.1 The eye

The function of the eye is to form an image; a cross-section of the eye is illustrated in
Fig. 1.3. Vision requires an ability to selectively focus on objects of interest. This is
achieved by the ciliary muscles that hold the lens. In old age, it is these muscles which
become slack, and the eye loses its ability to focus at short distance. The iris, or pupil, is
like an aperture on a camera and controls the amount of light entering the eye. It is a
delicate system and needs protection, this is provided by the cornea (sclera). This is
outside the choroid which has blood vessels that supply nutrition and is opaque to cut
down the amount of light. The retina is on the inside of the eye, which is where light falls
to form an image. By this system muscles rotate the eye, and shape the lens, to form an
image on the fovea (focal point) where the majority of sensors are situated. The blind
spot is where the optic nerve starts, there are no sensors there.
 Chapter 1
Introduction 5

Choroid/sclera

Ciliary muscle

Lens

Fovea

Blind spot
Retina

Optic nerve

FIGURE 1.3 Human eye.

Focussing involves shaping the lens, rather than positioning it as in a camera. The
lens is shaped to refract close images greatly, and distant objects little, essentially by
‘stretching’ it. The distance of the focal centre of the lens varies from approximately
14 mm to around 17 mm depending on the lens shape. This implies that a world scene
is translated into an area of about 2 mm2. Good vision has high acuity (sharpness),
which implies that there must be very many sensors in the area where the image is
formed.
There are actually nearly 100 million sensors dispersed around the retina. Light falls
on these sensors to stimulate photochemical transmissions, which results in nerve im-
pulses that are collected to form the signal transmitted by the eye. There are two types of
sensor: firstly, the rods  these are used for black and white (scotopic) vision; and sec-
ondly, the cones e these are used for colour (photopic) vision. There are approximately
10 million cones and nearly all are found within 5 degrees of the fovea. The remaining
100 million rods are distributed around the retina, with the majority between 20 and
5 degrees of the fovea. Acuity is actually expressed in terms of spatial resolution
(sharpness) and brightness/colour resolution and is greatest within 1 degree of the fovea.
There is only one type of rod, but there are three types of cones. These types are the
following:
1. S e short wavelength: these sense light towards the blue end of the visual
spectrum;
2. M e medium wavelength: these sense light around green; and
3. L e long wavelength: these sense light towards the red region of the spectrum.
Discovering Diverse Content Through
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 7. Have I any knowledge of the world? Have I studied men (as
well as books) and observed their tempers, maxims and manners?
Have I learned, to beware of men? To add the wisdom of the serpent
to the innocence of the dove? Has God given me by nature, or have
I acquired, any measure of the discernment of spirits? Or of its near
ally, prudence, enabling me on all occasions to consider all
circumstances, and to suit and vary my behaviour according to the
various combinations of them? Do I labour never to be rude or ill-
mannered? Not to be remarkably wanting in good-breeding? Do I
endeavour to copy after those who are eminent for address and
easiness of behaviour? Am I (tho’ never light or trifling, either in word
or action, yet) affable and courteous to all men? And do I omit no
means which is in my power, and consistent with my character, of
pleasing all men with whom I converse, for their good, to edification?
 If I am wanting even in these lowest endowments, shall I not
frequently regret the want? How often shall I move heavily, and be
far less useful than I might have been? How much more shall I suffer
in my usefulness, if I have wasted the opportunities I once had of
acquainting myself with the great lights of antiquity, the Antenicene
fathers? Or if I have droned away those precious hours, wherein I
might have made myself master of the sciences? How poorly must I
many times drag on, for want of the helps which I have vilely cast
away? But is not my case still worse, if I have loitered away the time
wherein I should have perfected myself in Greek and Hebrew? I
might before this have been critically acquainted with the treasuries
of sacred knowledge. But they are now hid from my eyes; they are
close locked up, and I have no key to open them. However, have I
used all possible diligence to supply that grievous defect, (so far as it
can be supplied now) by the most accurate knowledge of the English
scriptures? Do I meditate therein day and night? Do I think (and
consequently speak) thereof, when I sit in the house, and when I
walk by the way; when I lie down, and when I rise up? By this means
have I at length attained a thorough knowledge as of the sacred text,
so of its literal and spiritual meaning? Otherwise how can I attempt to
instruct others therein? Without this, I am a blind guide indeed! I am
absolutely incapable of teaching my flock, what I have never learned
myself: no more fit to lead souls to God, than I am to govern the
world.

(2.) And yet there is a higher consideration than that of gifts;

higher than any or all of these joined together; a consideration in
view of which all external and all intellectual endowments vanish into
nothing. Am I such as I ought to be, with regard to the grace of God?
The Lord God enable me to judge aright of this!
 And 1. What was my intention in taking upon me this office and
ministry? What was it, in taking charge of this parish, either as
minister or curate? Was it always, and is it now, wholly and solely, to
glorify God, and save souls? Has my eye been singly fixed on this,
from the beginning hitherto? Had I never, have I not now, any
mixture in my intention; any alloy of baser metal? Had I, or have I no
thought of worldly gain? Filthy lucre, as the apostle terms it. Had I at
first, have I now, no secular view? No eye to honour or preferment?
To a plentiful income? Or, at least, a competency? A warm and
comfortable livelihood?

*Alas, my brother! If the light that is in thee be darkness, how

great is that darkness? Was a comfortable livelihood then your
motive for entering into the ministry? And do you avow this in the
face of the sun, and without one blush upon your cheek? I cannot
compare you with Simon Magus: you are many degrees beneath
him. He offered to give money for the gift of God, the power of
conferring the Holy Ghost. Hereby however he shewed, that he set
an higher value on the gift than on the money which he would have
parted with for it. But you do not: you set a far higher value on the
money than on the gift; insomuch that you do not desire, you will not
accept of the gift, unless the money accompany it! The bishop said,
when you was ordained, “Receive thou the Holy Ghost.” But that was
the least of your care. Let who will receive this, so you receive the
money, the revenue of a good benefice. While you minister the word
and sacraments before God, he gives the Holy Ghost to those who
duly receive them: so that through your hands likewise the Holy
Ghost is in this sense given now. But you have little concern whether
he be or not: so little, that you will minister no longer, he shall be
given no more either through your lips or hands, if you have no more
money for your labour. O Simon, Simon! what a saint wert thou,
compared to many of the most honourable men now in
Christendom?
 Let not any either ignorantly or wilfully mistake me. I would not
muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. I know the spiritual labourer
too is worthy of his reward; and that if we sow unto our flock spiritual
things, it is meet that we reap of their carnal things. I do not therefore
blame, no, not in any degree, a minister’s taking a yearly salary: but I
blame his seeking it. The thing blameable is, the having it in his view,
as the motive, or any part of the motive, for entering into this sacred
office.

Hic nigræ succus loliginis, hæc est Ærugo mera.

If preferment, or honour, or profit was in his eye, his eye was not
single. And our Lord knew no medium between a single and an evil
eye. The eye therefore which is not single is evil. It is a plain,
adjudged case. He then that has any other design in undertaking or
executing the office of a minister, than purely this, to glorify God and
save souls, his eye is not single. Of consequence, it is evil; and
therefore his whole body must be full of darkness. The light which is
in him is very darkness: darkness covers his whole soul: he has no
solid peace: he has no blessing from God: And there is no fruit of his
labours.

It is no wonder, that they who see no harm in this, see no harm in

adding one living to another, and, if they can, another to that; yet still
wiping their mouth, and saying, they have done no evil. In the very
first step, their eye was not single: therefore their mind was filled with
darkness. So they stumble on still in the same mire, till their feet
stumble on the dark mountains.

*It is pleaded indeed, That “a small living will not maintain a large
family.” Maintain? How? It will not cloath them in purple and fine
linen; nor enable them to fare sumptuously every day. But will not
the living you have now, afford you and yours the plain necessaries,
yea and conveniencies of life? Will it not maintain you in the frugal,
Christian simplicity, which becomes a minister of Christ? It will not
maintain you in pomp and grandeur, in elegant luxury, in fashionable
sensuality. So much the better. If your eyes were open, whatever
your income was, you would flee from these as from hell-fire.
 It has been pleaded, secondly, “by having a larger income, I am
able to do more good.” But dare you aver, in the presence of God,
that it was singly with this view, only for this end, that you sought a
larger income? If not, you are still condemned before God; your eye
was not single. Do not therefore quibble and evade. This was not
your motive of acting. It was not the desire of doing more good,
whether to the souls or bodies of men, it was not the love of God;
(you know it was not, your own conscience is as a thousand
witnesses) but it was the love of money, and the desire of other
things, which animated you in this pursuit. If then the word of God is
true, you are in darkness still: It fills and covers your soul.

I might add, a larger income does not necessarily imply a

capacity of doing more spiritual good. And this is the highest kind of
good. It is good to feed the hungry, to cloath the naked: But it is a far
nobler good, to save souls from death, to pluck poor brands out of
the burning. And it is that to which you are peculiarly called, and to
which you have solemnly promised to “bend all your studies and
endeavours.” But you are by no means sure, that by adding a
second living to your first, you shall be more capable of doing good
in this kind, than you would have been, had you laid out all your time,
and all your strength, on your first flock.

“However I shall be able to do more temporal good.” You are not

sure even of this. If riches encrease, they are increased that eat
them. Perhaps your expences may rise proportionably with your
income. But if not, if you have a greater ability, shall you have a
greater willingness to do good? You have no reason in the world to
believe this. There are a thousand instances of the contrary. How
many have less will, when they have more power? Now they have
more money, they love it more. When they had little, they did their
diligence gladly to give of that little: but since they have had much,
they are so far from giving plenteously, that they can hardly afford to
give at all.
 “But by my having another living, I maintain a valuable man, who
might otherwise want the necessaries of life.” I answer, 1. Was this
your whole and sole motive, in seeking that other living? If not, this
plea will not clear you from the charge: your eye was not single. 2. If
it was you may put it beyond dispute. You may prove at once the
purity of your intention. Make that valuable man rector of one of your
parishes, and you are clear before God and man.

But what can be pleaded for those who have two or more flocks,
and take care of none of them? Who just look at them now and then
for a few days, and then remove to a convenient distance, and say,
soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease;
eat, drink, and be merry?

*Some years ago I was asking a plain man, “Ought not he who
feeds the flock, to eat of the milk of the flock?” He answered, “Friend,
I have no objection to that. But what is that to him who does not feed
the flock? He stands on the far side of the hedge, and feeds himself.
It is another who feeds the flock. And ought he to have the milk of
the flock? What canst thou say for him? Truly, nothing at all. And he
will have nothing to say for himself, when the great Shepherd shall
pronounce that just sentence, bind the unprofitable servant hand and
foot, and cast him into outer darkness.”

I have dwelt the longer on this head, because a right intention is

the first point of all, and the most necessary of all; inasmuch as the
want of this cannot be supplied by any thing else whatsoever. It is
the setting out wrong; a fault never to be amended, unless you return
to the place whence you came, and set out right. It is impossible
therefore to lay too great stress upon a single eye, a pure intention;
without which, all our sacrifice, our prayers, sermons and
sacraments are an abomination to the Lord.

I cannot dismiss this important article, without touching upon one

thing more. How many are directly concerned therein, I leave to the
searcher of hearts.
 You have been settled in a living or a curacy for some time. You
are now going to exchange it for another. Why do you do this? For
what reason do you prefer this before your former living or curacy?
“Why, I had but fifty pounds a year where I was before, and now I
shall have an hundred.” And is this your real motive of acting? The
true reason why you make the exchange? “It is: And is it not a
sufficient reason?” Yes, for a Heathen; but not for one who calls
himself a Christian.

*Perhaps a more gross infatuation than this, was never yet

known upon earth. There goes one, who is commissioned to be an
ambassador of Christ, a shepherd of never-dying souls, a watchman
over the Israel of God, a steward of the mysteries which angels
desire to look into. Where is he going? “To London, to Bristol, to
Northampton.” Why does he go thither? “To get more money.” A
tolerable reason for driving an herd of bullocks to one market rather
than the other; though if a drover does this, without any farther view,
he acts as an Heathen, not a Christian. But what a reason for leaving
the immortal souls, over whom the Holy Ghost had made you
overseer! And yet this is the motive which not only influences in
secret, but is acknowledged openly and without a blush! Nay, it is
executed, justified, defended; and that not by a few, here and there,
who are apparently void both of piety and shame; but by numbers of
seemingly religious men, from one end of England to the other!
 2. Am I, secondly, such as I ought to be, with regard to my
affections? I am taken from among, and ordained for men, in things
pertaining to God. I stand between God and man, by the authority of
the great Mediator, in the nearest and most endearing relation both
to my Creator and my fellow-creatures. Have I accordingly given my
heart to God, and to my brethren for his sake? Do I love God with all
my soul and strength? And my neighbour, every man as myself?
Does this love swallow me up? Possess me whole? Constitute my
supreme happiness? Does it animate all my passions and tempers,
and regulate all my powers and faculties? Is it the spring which gives
rise to all my thoughts, and governs all my words and actions? If it
does, not unto me, but unto God be the praise. If it does not, God be
merciful to me a sinner!

At least, do I feel such a concern for the glory of God, and such a
thirst after the salvation of men, that I am ready to do any thing,
however contrary to my natural inclination, to part with any thing,
however agreeable to me, to suffer any thing, however grievous to
flesh and blood, so I may save one soul from hell? Is this my ruling
temper at all times and in all places? Does it make all my labour
light? If not what a weariness is it? What a drudgery? Had I not far
better hold the plough?

But is it possible this should be my ruling temper, if I still love the

world? No certainly, If I love the world, the love of the Father is not in
me. The love of God is not in me, if I love pleasure so called, or
diversion. Neither is it in me, if I am a lover of honour or praise, or of
dress, or of good eating and drinking. Nay, even indolence, or the
love of ease, is inconsistent with the love of God.
 What a creature then is a coveteous, an ambitious, a luxurious,
an indolent, a diversion-loving clergyman? Is it any wonder that
infidelity should encrease, where any of these are to be found? That
many, comparing their spirit with their profession, should blaspheme
that worthy name whereby they are called? But woe be unto him by
whom the offence cometh! It were good for that man if he had never
been born. It were good for him now, rather than he should continue
to turn the lame out of the way, that a mill-stone were hanged about
his neck, and he were cast into the depth of the sea!

3. May not you, who are of a better spirit consider, thirdly, am I

such as I ought to be, with regard to my practice? Am I in my private
life, wholly devoted to God? Am I intent upon this one thing, to do in
every point not my own will, but the will of him that sent me? Do I
carefully and resolutely abstain from every evil word and work? From
all appearance of evil? From all indifferent things, which might lay a
stumbling block in the way of the weak? Am I zealous of good
works? As I have time, do I do good to all men? And that in every
kind, and in as high a degree as I am capable?
 How do I behave in the public work whereunto I am called? In my
pastoral character? Am I a pattern to my flock, in word, in behaviour,
in love, in spirit, in faith and purity? Is my word, my daily
conversation, always in grace, always meet to minister grace to the
hearers? Is my behaviour suitable to the dignity of my calling? Do I
walk as Christ also walked? Does the love of God and man not only
fill my heart but shine through my whole conversation? Is the spirit,
the temper which appears in all my words and actions, such as
allows me to say with humble boldness, herein ye be followers of
me, as I am of Christ? Do all who have spiritual discernment take
knowledge, (judging of the tree by its fruits) that the life which I now
live, I live by faith in the Son of God; and that in all simplicity and
godly sincerity I have my conversation in the world? Am I exemplarily
pure from all worldly desire? From all vile and vain affections? Is my
life one continued labour of love? One tract of praising God and
helping man? Do I in every thing see him who is invisible? And
beholding with open face the glory of the Lord, am I changed into the
same image from glory to glory, by the spirit of the Lord?
 Brethren, is not this our calling, even as we are Christians? But
more eminently as we are ministers of Christ? And why (I will not
say, do we fall short, but why) are we satisfied with falling so short of
it? Is there any necessity laid upon us, of sinking so infinitely below
our calling? Who hath required this at our hands? Certainly not he by
whose authority we minister. Is not his will the same with regard to
us, as with regard to his first ambassadors? Is not his love, and is
not his power still the same, as they were in the antient days? Know
we not, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever!
Why then may not you be as burning and as shining lights, as those
that shone seventeen hundred years ago? Do you desire to partake
of the same burning love, of the same shining holiness? Surely you
do. You cannot but be sensible, it is the greatest blessing which can
be bestowed on any child of man. Do you design it? Aim at it? Press
on to this mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus?
Do you constantly and earnestly pray for it; Then as the Lord liveth,
ye shall attain. Only let us pray on, and tarry at Jerusalem, ’till we be
endued with power from on high. Let us continue in all the
ordinances of God, particularly in meditating on his word, in denying
ourselves, and taking up our cross daily, and as we have time doing
good to all men: and then assuredly the great shepherd of us and
our flocks, will make us perfect in every good work, to do his will, and
work in us all that is well pleasing in his sight! This is the desire and
prayer of

Your Brother and Servant in our common Lord,

JOHN WESLEY.

London,
February 6, 1756.
 A short A C C O U N T

O F T H E D E AT H O F

T H O M A S H I T C H E N S.
Bisveal, near Redruth, Cornwall.

1. Y son, Thomas Hitchens, was born April 14, 1723. He went to

M school till he was about ten years old. From school he went
to work at the stamps in dressing of tin oar, in which
employment he continued about six years. Afterwards he wrought in
the tin works underground, till about a year before his death. Then
he went to dress tin-leavings for me, having five or six boys under
him. At the same time he plowed, sowed, mowed, reaped, and
managed all my husbandry; understanding every thing both as to the
tin and the land; so that we had scarce one in the neighbourhood like
him.

2. He was from a child of a very sober and a very sweet

behaviour, and remarkably dutiful to his parents. But about nineteen
he began to go revellings and hurlings, and sometimes to be merry
with his companions. Of this I now and then told him, but not sharply;
for I counted both him and his brother mighty good young men: and
was not a little proud, when people told me, “I had two likely sons,
and as stout men as any in the parish.” I thought it best therefore to
let him have his liberty: especially as I then saw no great harm in
these things.
 3. But he had done with these, from the hour he first heard the
gospel of the grace of God. He then chose to suffer affliction with the
people of God, rather than to enjoy all the pleasures of sin. He had
no fear, in the hottest of the persecution. While the mob were pulling
down the house in which we used to meet, he stood at a small
distance, all the time, being nothing terrified; encouraged his brother
and said, “God will deliver us; only let us trust in him.” Nor was he at
all moved, when the showers of stones obliged us to stop up all our
windows with whole deals. One night we heard a great tumult and
noise as of much people and many cries. And it was told us, they
were at the house of one of our brethren, who lived about a quarter
of a mile off: Thomas did not take time to go the road way, (tho’ it
was exceeding dark;) but ran directly through the grounds and over
the hedges, ’till he came to the house. The mob, hearing the sound
of feet, ran away, not one being left behind. So, said Thomas, the
scripture is fulfilled. One of you shall chase a thousand. As he came
into the house, the family too were preparing to run out of it. But he
soon convinced them, they had no cause to fear, and they mightily
rejoiced together, and praised God who had delivered them out of
the hands of unreasonable and cruel men. All the windows and
doors were dashed in pieces; but none of the family hurt at all,
notwithstanding the vast quantities of stones, which had fallen on all
sides of them. One very large stone they found in the cradle, close
by a little child. But the child was not hurt. So that in all things they
saw the hand of God was over them for good.

4. About eighteen months ago, while his brother William and he

were working in the pit with another man, the earth calved in upon
the man, who cried out for help, and Thomas ran toward the place
where he was. In running his light went out: but he found the man by
his voice, tho’ not till he was almost covered in. Before he had
cleared him, the earth calved in again, and he was very near
covered in himself. And but that it stopt, they knew not how, in one
minute more they must both have perished together. William hearing
the noise, made up to the place, and in some time relieved them
both. Of this Thomas often made mention, praising God for his
wonderful deliverance.
 5. Some account of the manner wherein he found peace with
God, (two or three months after his brother) I lately found in his
pocket-book. The substance of it was this:

“In reading the three first chapters of St. John, while I was in
much trouble and heaviness of soul, the Lord gave me great comfort;
especially from these words, To as many as believe in his name, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God. But soon after I
was stript of all, as though God had left me, a final cast-away.
Nevertheless I went into my closet, and with a heavy heart said,
Lord, I praise thee, that thou hast not given me over unto death. But
how shall I appear before thee? While I spoke, the Lord answered,
and applied these words, I am thy righteousness; which burst the
cords that before kept my spirit down.”

6. He often complained, that when he found great joy, he was in

the greatest danger both of pride and lightness: and therefore said,
he had much rather, if it were the will of God, be always in a
mourning state. He likewise found great temptation to pride when he
was most blessed in speaking to the people. And this was the main
reason of his not stirring up the gift of God which was in him.

7. He frequently repeated those words of St. Paul, It is good for a

man not to touch a woman; and those of Job, I have made a
covenant with my eyes; why then should I think upon a maid! He was
very jealous over himself when he was in company with those of a
different sex. And if no man besides himself was there, he generally
quitted the company as soon as he could.

8. In the latter part of his life he was much grown in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He sometimes saw, as he
said, anger and pride in himself; but they had no power: neither had
the love or desire of any creature; they were all in subjection under
his feet. He was more and more dead to all earthly things, and filled
with the fire of God’s love. The work of God had a deeper root in his
heart and he was more settled and established in the grace of God.
 9. After his brother’s death, he declared he could not rest through
the earnestness of his desire to follow him. However in the mean
time he put in practice what Samuel spoke of, namely meeting all the
family once a week. He reproved me and his mother in several
things; but we could not reprove him in any. I could not convince him
or Samuel of sin, for two years or more.

10. On Wednesday, September 10, in the evening he found

himself out of order; he went to bed something earlier than usual,
and soon appeared to be in a high fever. But his confidence in God
was still the same, and all his words, both that night and the next
day, convinced all who came near him, that the peace of God
continually ruled his heart.

11. On Thursday evening, between nine and ten, his sister sitting
by him said, “Lord, shall I call, and wilt thou not answer? No; it
cannot be. Thou hast promised every one that asks in faith shall
receive.” Then he began praying for his father and mother; for his
brothers and sisters, and in particular for her that sat by him. “O my
God marry her to thyself, make her all glorious within. Give her an
undivided heart.” He then prayed for himself. “Now come O my God,
and sanctify me wholly. Press me closer to thyself. Thou knowest,
this is all my desire. Give me power to declare thy wonderous works
before I go hence. O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy
victory?”
 12. As Mary Busvine came to the bedside he looked on her and
said, “Now I am free. Now my heart is at liberty. I will praise my God
as long as I have breath.” After speaking much to the same effect,
he laid still a small time, and then broke out into exceeding loud,
vehement prayer, his voice being quite altered and every sentence
♦ pronounced with uncommon emphasis. He prayed first for all
estates and conditions of men; that the church of Christ might spread
over all the nations, that ten thousand times ten thousand might be
converted to God, and all the people of the earth praise him. Then
he prayed for all ministers of the gospel, from the greatest even to
the least; especially for those whom God had lately employed to
seek and save those that were lost in Cornwall. Afterwards he
prayed for John Trembath that he might live to the glory of God, who
had brought him back from the gates of death, and might be a
means of saving many souls from the bitter pains of eternal death.
He then prayed for the society: “O Lord unite them as the heart of
one man. O Lord, give them eyes to see whereinsoever they have
departed from thee. O take from them the spirit of unthankfulness,
and suffer them not to bite or devour one another. Heal thou their
backslidings and spread over them the banner of thy love!”

♦ “pronunced” replaced with “pronounced”

13. With prayer there was continual praise intermixed.

Sometimes he was blessing God for what he had done; then
praying, “O my God finish thy work and take me into thy kingdom. Is
this the day, O my God that I shall kiss my brother in paradise?—O
Lord the angels have already praised thee at my conversion. Is this
the day that I shall praise thee with them? Yes, O my God, I am now
going to join them, to sing praises to thee for ever.”
 Then he prayed with great earnestness for Mary ♦Busvine, and
his own sister (both of whom he had in the beginning of the evening
desired, to stay with him till he was in eternity) that they might never
grow weary or faint in their minds, that God would send down the
spirit of sanctification into their hearts, and give them resigned wills
to bear whatever his providence should lay upon them: adding, they
shall run and not be weary. I know we shall all meet together, and
sing praises unto him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, for
ever and ever.”

♦ “Bisvine” replaced with “Busvine” for consistency

He went on, “O how good is God to me, that he hath given me a

tongue to praise him! A little while, yet a little while, and I shall praise
him in heaven! O the goodness of God, that I a worm of the earth,
shall stand there, upon mount Sion, with the hundred and forty and
four thousand which have washed their robes and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb! Here is a privilege; here is a wonder: that I
am made a son of God and a joint-heir with Christ, and I shall soon
be where I shall behold him for ever! I, even I, who have been a
backslider from God! But he has healed my backslidings and loved
me freely.”

14. Soon after he said, “I love thee, O my God, Thou knowest

that I love thee, because thou hast first loved me. O what manner of
love is this, that God should stoop to love me! And he is coming to
carry me home. O! I see thousands and ten thousands of angels! Do
you not see them? O brother Trembath, do you not see what a
glorious place I am going to; I am going to join with angels and arch-
angels, and with all the company of heaven. I am going to reign with
God, among ten thousands of his saints and to bask in the beams of
his love for ever.”
 Then looking on Mary Busvine, he said, “Can’t you see Jesus
Christ coming, with an innumerable company of angels, and the
golden banner display’d! They are coming to carry me to the bosom
of my God. Open their eyes, O God, that they may see them. O what
a good God have I served! I am sanctified, soul, body, and spirit. I
am whiter than snow. I am washed in the blood of my Redeemer.
Why, I am all God. My heart is full of God! O let them who hear me
now, praise thee for ever and ever!”

“And yet I have been unfaithful to my God. For he gave me a gift,

but I improved it not. I thought I was not worthy to stand in the
highway and call sinners to repentance. But, O God, thou hast
forgiven me this also, and I will preach thee now as long as I have
breath.”

15. He ceased not thus praying and praising for an hour. His
parents then coming in (early on Friday morning) he said, “O my
mother, you will not weep to see me going to such a loving God. My
father and mother will not be backsliders. No; I know that God loves
them, and that we shall all meet together in heaven, to praise him to
all eternity.” Then looking on his brother, about twelve years old, he
said, “Stand off, for fear you catch the distemper: for I fear you are
not prepared to die, you have played away the grace of God. The
harvest may come, before you are renewed in the image of God, and
then how will you appear? Cry mightily to God. Strive with all your
might. Call upon him, and God will hear.”

He then said, “Right my feet, that I may lie strait to resign my

breath. When I am dead, do you sing me all the way, sing my body
to the grave, lay me by my brother, and at the same time my spirit
shall be joined to his, and to ten thousand times ten thousand of
angels and spirits, singing praises to God and the Lamb for ever.”
 16. Having spoken till he had no breath left, he paused; and in a
short time, began again, “Hear now the words of a dying man, a
living wonder, a Christian triumphing over death! O what a God do
the Christians serve! What a God I have served! Praise him with me
for ever. Behold the immense goodness of our God. O that all the
world knew our God! He has now made my heart free that I may
praise him, and I cannot stop while I have breath. Go, tell all the
world of this. O brethren! What a good God do we serve! Be not
afraid to tell it abroad! Go, shew it to all people, that they may come
and serve him too.”

When he stopt speaking, the oppression on his breast returned.

This he took notice of and said, “While I am praising God, my heart
is free: but when I cease, I feel this load again. But I may well bear
this; for this is all the hell I shall have.” Then he broke out,

“See a soul escape to bliss,

Keep the Christian festival.”

“He hath washed me and I am whiter than snow. God is mine,

and I am God’s. I shall soon be with him.” Thus he continued, till he
could speak no more.
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