In the course of this voyage, Mr. N. was wonderfully preserved through many unforeseen dangers. At one time there was a conspiracy among his own people to become pirates, and take possession of the ship: when the plot was nearly ripe, they watched only for opportunity: two of them were taken ill in one day; and one of them died; this suspended the affair, and opened a way to its discovery. The slaves on board frequently plotted insurrections; and were sometimes upon the very brink of one when it was disclosed. When at a place called Mana, near cape Mount, Mr. N. intended to go on shore the next morning to settle some business: but the surf of the sea ran so high, that he was afraid to attempt landing: he had often ventured at a worse time; but then feeling a backwardness which he could not account for, the high surf furnished a pretext for indulging it: he therefore returned to the ship without doing any business. He afterward found, that, on the day he intended to land, a scandalous and groundless charge.had been laid against him, which greatly threatened his honour and interest both in Africa and England; and would perhaps have affected his life, had he landed: the person most concerned in this affair owed him about a hundred pounds, which he sent in a huff: and otherwise, perhaps, would not have paid it all: Mr. N. heard no more of this accusation till the next voyage; and then it was publicly acknowledged to have been a malicious calumny, without the least shadow of foundation.

But as these things did not occur every day, Mr. N. prosecuted his Latin, being very regular in the management of his time. He allotted about eight hours to sleep and meals, eight hours to exercise and devotion, and eight hours to his books; and thus, by diversifying his engagements, the whole day was agreeably filled up.

From the coast he went to St. Christopher's,

where he met with a great disappointment: for the letters which he expected from Mrs. N. were, by mistake, forwarded to Antigua. Certain of her

punctuality in writing, if alive, he concluded, by not hearing from her, that she was surely dead. This fear deprived him of his appetite and rest, and caused an incessant pain in his stomach; and, in the space of three weeks, he was near sinking under the weight of an imaginary stroke. "I felt," says he,

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severe symptoms of that mixture of pride and madness, commonly called a broken heart; and, indeed, I wonder that this case is not more common. How often do the potsherds of the earth presume to contend with their Maker! and what a wonder of mercy is it, that they are not all broken! This was a sharp lesson, but I hope it did me good; and, when I had thus suffered some weeks, I thought of sending a small vessel to Antigua. I did so, and she brought me several packets, which restored my health and peace; and gave me a strong contrast of the Lord's goodness to me, and of my unbelief and ingratitude toward him."

In August, 1753, Mr. N. returned to Liverpool. After that voyage, he continued only six weeks at home; and, in that space, nothing very memorable occurred.

We now follow Mr. N. in his third voyage to Guinea. It seems to be the shortest of any that he had made; and is principally marked by an account of a young man who had formerly been a midshipman, and his intimate companion on board the Harwich. This youth, at the time Mr. N. first knew him, was sober; but was afterward deeply infected with Mr. N.'s then libertine principles. They met at Liverpool, and renewed their former acquaintance. As their conversation frequently turned upon religion, Mr. N. was very desirous to recover his companion. He gave him a plain account of the manner and rea

sons of his own change, and used every argument to induce him to relinquish his infidelity. When pressed very close, his usual reply was, that Mr. N. was the first person who had given him an idea of his liberty; which naturally occasioned many mournful reflections in the mind of his present instructor. This

person was going master to Guinea himself: but, meeting with disappointment, Mr. N. offered to take him as a companion, with a view of assisting him in gaining future employment; but principally, that his arguments, example, and prayers, might be attended with good effect. But his companion was exceedingly profane; grew worse and worse; and presented a lively, but distressing picture, continually before Mr. N.'s eyes, of what he himself had once been. Besides this, the man was not only deaf to remonstrance himself, but laboured to counteract Mr. N.'s influence upon others: his spirit and passions were likewise so exceedingly high, that it required all Mr. N.'s prudence and authority to hold him in any degree of restraint. At length Mr. N. had an opportunity of buying a small vessel, which he supplied with a cargo from his own ship. He gave his companion the command of it, and sent him away to trade on the ship's account. When they parted, Mr. N. repeated and enforced his best advice: it seemed greatly to affect his companion at the time: but, when he found himself released from the restraint of his instructor, he gave a loose to every appetite; and his violent irregularities, joined to the heat of the climate, soon threw him into a malignant fever, which carried him off in a few days. He seems to have died convinced, but not changed his rage and despair struck those who were about him with horror; and he pronounced his own fatal doom before he expired, without any sign that he either hoped or asked for mercy. I hope the reader will deem the features of this awful case,

though a digression from the principal subject, too instructive to be omitted.

Mr. N. left the coast in about four months, and sailed for St. Christopher's. Hitherto he had enjoyed a perfect and equal state of health in different climates for several years: but, in this passage, he was visited with a fever, which gave him a very near prospect of eternity. He was, however, supported in a silent composure of spirit, by the faith of Jesus; and found great relief from those words, He is able to save to the uttermost. He was for a while troubled, either by a temptation or by the fever disordering his faculties, that he should be lost or overlooked amidst the myriads that are continually entering the unseen world; but the recollection of that Scripture-The Lord knoweth them that are his-put an end to his doubts. After a few days he began to amend; and, by the time they arrived in the West Indies, he was perfectly recovered.

In this way he was led, for about the space of six He had learnt something of the evil of his heart had read the Bible over and over-had perused several religious books-and had a general view of Gospel truth: but his conceptions still remained confused in many respects; not having, in all this time, met with one acquaintance qualified to assist his inquiries.

On his arrival at St. Christopher's, he found a captain of a ship from London, a man of experience in the things of God. For near a month, they spent every evening together on board each other's ship alternately; prolonging their visits till near daybreak. While Mr. N. was an eager recipient, his companion's discourse not only informed his understanding, but inflamed his heart-encouraged him in attempting social prayer-taught him the advantage of Christian converse-put him upon an attempt to make his profession more public, and to venture to speak for God.

His conceptions now became more clear and evangelical: he was delivered from a fear which had long troubled him, of relapsing into his former apostacy; and taught to expect preservation, not from his own power and holiness, but from the power and promise of God. From this friend he likewise received a general view of the present state of religion, and of the prevailing errors and controversies of the times; and a direction where to inquire, in London, for further instruction. Mr. N.'s passage homewards gave him leisure to digest what he had received. rived safely at Liverpool, August, 1754.*

He ar

His stay at home, however, was intended to be but short; and, by the beginning of November, he was ready again for sea. But the Lord saw fit to over-rule his design. It seems, from the account he gives, that he had not had the least scruple as to the lawfulness of the slave trade: he considered it as the appointment of Providence: he viewed this employment as respectable and profitable: yet he could not help

In a MS. note on a letter from sea, in the interleaved copy of his "Letters to a Wife," before-mentioned, Mr. Newton remarks :"I now enter my 70th year. Still Thou art singularly bountiful to me: still I have reason to think myself favoured as to externals beyond the common lot of mortals. Thou didst bear me above, the removal of her I most valued, to the admiration of all who knew The best part of my childhood and youth was vanity and folly but, before I attained the age of man, I became exceeding vile indeed; and was seated in the chair of the scorner, in early life. The troubles and miseries I for a time endured, were my own. I brought them upon myself, by forsaking thy good and pleasant paths; and choosing the ways of transgressors, which I found very hard: they led to slavery, contempt, famine, and despair.

me.

"But my recovery from that dreadful state was wholly of Thee. Thou didst prepare the means, unthought of and undesired by me. How nice were the turns upon which my delivery from Africa depended! Had the ship passed one quarter of an hour sooner, I had died there a wretch, as I had lived. But Thou didst pity and hear my first lispings in prayer, at the time the storm fell upon me. Thou didst preserve from sinking and starving. Thus I returned home; and Thou didst provide me friends, when I was destitute and a stranger."