ABSTRACT
Some clear examples can be seen in the testimonies assembled by John Rogers when he was pastor of an independent congregation meeting in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in 1653. In the Dublin collection all the writers interpreted their awakening after a common pattern, though outward influences were varied enough: the example of parents, friends or husbands who had been converted; afflictions such as bereavement, poverty, or illness; offences like disobeying parents, breaking the sabbath, or habitual drunkenness. There were many pressures predisposing these writers to conformity. As well as the clearly defined doctrinal tradition they were brought up in there was the cohesive nature of the gathered church community and the aim of mutual edification which called forth the original narratives. The full influence of narratives of spiritual experience on the development of prose fiction is outside the scope of this study, but mention must be made of an anonymous work which appeared in 1708.
