When the fever declined and his appetite returned, he could scarcely procure food. Now and then, indeed, she would Vouchsafe to send him some victuals in her own plate, after she had dined; and once, when about to receive it from her hand, he, being extremely feeble, dropped the plate. She laughed at his disappointment; and though her table was covered with dishes, refused to allow him any more. He was obliged to live on unwholesome food, which often made him ill; and was sometimes indebted for sustenance to the poor slaves in chains, out of their own scanty allowance.

His master returned; and on his next voyage took him along with him; but he was soon unjustly accused of stealing his goods; and was treated with great severity,-suffering by want of food and clothes, and sometimes exposed, for 30 or 40 hours together, to incessant rains. Some of the sad effects of these hardships remained with him all his days; and he con-, sidered them as a needful memento of the service and the wages of sin. One circumstance relating to this period is very peculiar. Though thus depressed, to a degree far below common wretchedness, he amused himself with Euclid's Elements, which he had brought with him, and drew diagrams with a stick, on the sand: so fertile is the human mind in the invention of some expedient to beguile its sorrows! In this manner he made himself master of the first six books of Euclid.

About this time he was once engaged in planting some lime or lemon-trees; his master and mistress happening to pass by, stopped to look at him. His master said, Who knows, but by the time these trees grow up and bear, you may go home to England, obtain the command of a ship, and return to reap the fruit of your labours. We see strange things sometimes happen.' This was a cutting sarcasm; but it proved a prediction; and he actually did return in the capacity mentioned," and plucked some of the first limes from those very trees.

He continued in this state about a year; during which, he repeatedly wrote to his father: he wrote also to Miss whom, at the lowest ebb, he hoped to see again. His affairs now took a more favourable turn, by his obtaining leave to live with another trader, one of whose factories was on the river Kittam. Here he was well clothed, lived in plenty, and had a share in the management of the business: he began to be pleased with the natives, and almost content to spend the rest of his days among them: but the Lord again interposed to break his plans, and to save him from ruin in spite of himself.

The ship that had orders from his father to bring him home, arrived on the coast in February 1747; and, by a peculiar providence, the captain found him out, and took him on board. Thus was he suddenly delivered from a captivity of about 15 months, though he had not a thought, nor a desire of the change, one hour before it took place. This ship, which con

tinued on its business on the coast of Africa for about a twelvemonth after he embarked in it, at length sailed for England; but the voyage proved uncommonly tedious and dangerous. Mr. Newton had now no business to employ his thoughts, except when he amused himself with the Mathematics. At other times, his whole life was a course of horrid impiety. Not content with common blasphemies, he invented new oaths; so that the captain, who was not at all circumspect in his own expressions, often reproved him. Indeed, his conduct was so uncommonly and desperately wicked, that, towards the close of the voyage, when any disasters happened, the captain would assure him, that he thought he had a Jonah on board; and that all the troubles of the voyage were owing to him.

In the mean time, Mr. Newton'was favoured with some remarkable deliverances from death; but which were entirely lost upon him. The admonitions of Conscience became weaker and weaker; and he had seldom a single check, even wheu he thought himself very near destruction. But it was on this voyage that the Lord's gracious design of delivering him from his wretched and carual state was to be manifested. Among the few books on board, was Stanhope's Thomas à Kempis: he took it up carelessly, as he had often done before, merely to pass away the time; but a thought darted into his mind, What if these things should be true? The thought was unwelcome: he therefore dismissed it, shut the book, and joined in vain conversation.

But the Lord's time was come; and the conviction he was so unwilling to receive, was to be more deeply impressed on his mind by an awful dispensation., He went to bed with his usual security; but was awaked from a sound sleep, by the force of a violent sea, which broke on board. The water filled his cabin; and a cry was heard that the ship was sinking The sea had torn away the upper timbers on one side, and made a mere wreck in a few minutes. It was astonishing that any of the crew survived to relate the story; and their preservation was almost miraculous. Towards morning the wind abated; and they were enabled to use some means for their safety, which succeeded beyond expectation.

At the beginning of the hurry he was little affected; but after some reflection, he said, almost without any meaning, If this will not do, the Lord have mercy upon us! This was the first desire he had breathed for mercy for many years; but instantly the thought occurred, What mercy can there be for me?' He now began to dread the thoughts of death; apprehending that, if the Christian religion were indeed true, he could not be forgiven. He now began to reflect on his former religious professions; the calls, warnings, and wonderful deliverances he had met with; his licentious course of conversation; and especially his profane ridicule of the Bible.

At first, he concluded that his sins were too great to be for given; and many awful passages of Scripture returned to his memory, which seemed to suit his case, and to bring with them a presumptive proof of their divine original *. Thus he waited with fear, and a kind of impatience, to know the worst

of his inevitable doom.

About six in the evening the ship was freed from water, and a gleam of hope arose. He thought he saw the hand of God displayed in his favour. He began to pray ;-he thought of Jesus, that Jesus whom he had so often derided ; he recollected the particulars of his life and of his death, -a death for sins not his own; but for those who, in their distress, should put their trust in him. He had many painful reasonings about the truth of Scripture; but he saw the necessity of a Mediator; on the gospel plan, he perceived at least a peradventure of hope; but, on every other side, nothing but black despair.

On the 8th of April, 1748, after being reduced to the lowest extremity, and in great danger of being starved to death, they anchored in Lough Swilly, in Ireland. The fears of sinking and starving he had shared in common with others; but he had a heart-bitterness peculiarly his own. His companions in danger soon forgot it all; but it was not so with hin: he was touched with a sense of the undeserved mercy he had received; he was affected with the recollection of his misspent life; and was at once happily freed from his deeply-routed habit of swearing.

During his stay in Ireland, while the ship was repairing, his health was recruited, and he became a serious professor of religion; went twice a day to church; took the sacrament; and made a solemn surrender of himself to God. He had yet much to learn; his views of the gospel-salvation were indisinct; but he was sincere, according to his knowledge; and experienced a degree of peace and satisfaction in his mind, to which he had before been a perfect stranger t

While here, he wrote to his father; from whom he received some affectionate letters. He was just going out Governor of York Fort, in Hudson's Bay; and sailed before Mr. N. could see him. He never returned to England, but was drowned while bathing, just before the ship arrived in the Bay.

Mr. Newton reached Liverpool in May 1748, where the Lord had provided him another father, in the late Mr. Joseph Manesty, a merchant of that town; who treated him with

Particularly Prov. i. 24-31. Hcb. vi. 4. 6. 2 Pet. ii. 20.

+ Concerning his state of mind at this time, he says, in the Preface to 'Letters to a Wife,' 'I was no longer an infidel, or a libert ne. I had some serious thoughts; was considerably reformed, but too well satisfied ́ with my reformation. If I had any spiritual light, it was but as the first faint streaks of the early dawn.' p. 5.

peculiar kindness, and tock upon himself the care of providing for him. He shortly offered him the command of a ship: this, however, he prudently declined for the present; but accepted the station of a mate. He made a short visit to London, and from thence to Kent, where he obtained an interview with Miss; and, before he left England, their intended union was agreed upon, his father having previously expressed his approbation.

On his voyage to Guinea, his religious fervour gradually abated; he grew slack in waiting on the Lord; became vain and trifling in his conversation, and seemed almost to forget the divine mercies. The remembrance of this sad decline proved, however, a useful lesson of instruction, by which he learnt how incapable he was of standing a single hour, without fresh supplies of strength and grace from Jesus. A violent fever, with which he was visited; broke the chain, and once more brought him to himself. He was then exceedingly distressed; and, retiring to a sequestered spot, poused out his soul before the Lord; he was enabled to hope and believe in a crucified Saviour; the burden was removed from his conscience; and not only his peace, but his health was speedily restored.

On his return to Liverpool, after settling the ship's affairs, he repaired to Kent. All obstacles to his long-expected union were now removed, and he was married in Feb. 1750. In the month of June, however, duty again called him abroad +; and he sailed from Liverpool in August, commander of a good ship. He had now the care of about thirty persons, whom he treated with great humanity, and kept up the wor ship of God among them. On this voyage he pursued his study of Latin; and mastered, though with much difficulty, Terence, Virgil, Livy, Sallust, &c. He returned to England in Nov. 1751.

In July 1752, he commenced a second voyage to Africa; during which he was wonderfully preserved in the midst of many dangers, and especially from a cospiracy among the crew to turn pirates and seize the ship. His stay on the coast

+ Speaking of this separation, in the Preface before mentioned, he says, The necessity of being absent from her, which then seemed to me bitter as death, I have now reason to acknowledge as one of the chief mercies of my life. If I could have obtained my fond short-sighted wish, and have continued with her, I see that, humanly speaking, it would have proved the ruin of us both.'

To alleviate the pains of absence, Mr. Newton had recourse to writing, even while at sea, two or three times a week, though no conveyance offered for six or eight months together. I have,' says he (Letter xi. page 163) to the amount of near 200 sheets of paper now lying in my bureau of that correspondence.' A selection of these Letters was published by Mr. Newton, after the death of Mrs. Newton, in two volumes.

was long; the trade precarious; and he was in 'deaths oft;" but he was as marvellously delivered, and returned to Liverpool in August, 1753.

His third voyage, as master of the vessel, which commenced in about six weeks after his return, was shorter and less perplexed than either of the former: he left the coast in about four months, and sailed for St. Kitt's. On this passage he was visited with a fever, which gave him a very near prospect of eternity; but his hopes were greater than his fears, and he was enabled to wait the event without much anxiety. The Lord appeared in his favour, and he arrived in the West Indies fectly recovered. On his arrival there, he found much spirit. ual profit from the conversation of a Capt. Clunie, a member of Mr. Brewer's church, at Stepney; he received an increase of knowledge; and his conceptions of divine truth became much more clear and evangelical. He arrived safe at Liverpool in August, 1754.

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By the beginning of November he was again ready for sea; but the Lord saw fit to over-rule his design. He had been, in general, satisfied with the slave-trade, not having the least. scruple, at that time, as to its lawfulness, and considering it as the appointment which Providence had marked out for him; yet, he looked upon himself as a sort of gaoler or turnkey; and was sometimes shocked with an employment that was perpetually conversant with chains, bolts, and shackles. In this view, he had often prayed to be fixed in a more humane calling, and in which he might enjoy the means of grace. His prayers were answered; but in an unexpected way. When he was within two days of sailing, while sitting at tea with Mrs. Newton, he was suddenly seized with a fit, which lasted about an hour, and produced effects which rendered it impru dent to proceed on the voyage; he, therefore, resigned the command, and was thus freed from that service, and from the calamitous consequences of that voyage, in which the captain and many of the crew died; and the vessel was brought home with great difficulty.

Disengaged from business, he spent most of the following year in London and in Kent; but he was exercised with a new trial; for Mrs. Newton was taken ill, and, for many months, reduced to the lowest state.

In London, he commenced a religious acquaintance with

*See a volume entitled, The Christian Correspondent; or, a Series of Letters, written by Mr. Newton to Captain Clunie, from 1761 to 1770. In the first of these Letters (page 6) he says, I often think of you with peculiar pleasure and thankfulness, as by you the Lord was pleased to bring me to know his people. Your conversation was much blessed to me at St. Kitt's; and the little knowledge I have of men and things, took its ise from thence.'