perience of the people of God, are well assured, that such intimations have not been totally withheld in any period down to the present times. Reason, far from contradicting this supposition, strongly pleads for it, where the process of reasoning is rightly understood, and carefully pursued. So that a late eminent writer*, who, I presume, is not generally charged with enthusiasm, undertakes to prove, that the phænomenon of dreaming is inexplicable at least, if not absolutely impossible, without taking in the agency and intervention of spiritual beings, to us invisible. I would refer the incredulous to him. For my own part, I can say, without scruple, "The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." I am sure I dreamed to the following effect; and I cannot doubt, from what I have seen since, that it had a direct and easy application to my own circumstances, to the dangers in which I was about to plunge myself, and to the unmerited deliverance and mercy which God would be pleased to afford me in the time of my distress.

66

Though I have wrote out a relation of this dream more than once for others, it has happened that I never reserved a copy; but the principal incidents are so deeply engraven on my memory, that I believe I am not liable to any considerable variations in repeating the account. The scene presented to my imagination was the harbour of Venice, where we had lately been. I thought it was night, and my watch upon the deck; and that, as I was walking to and fro by myself, a person came to me, (I do not remember from whence), and brought me a ring, with an express charge to keep it carefully; assuring me, that while I preserved that

*Baxter on the vis inertia.

ring, I should be happy and successful; but if I lost
or parted with it, I must expect nothing but trouble
and misery. I accepted the present and the terms
willingly, not in the least doubting my own care to pre-
serve it, and highly satisfied to have my happiness in my
own keeping. I was engaged in these thoughts, when
a second person came to me, and observing the ring on
my finger, took occasion to ask me some questions
concerning it. I readily told him its virtues; and his
answer expressed a surprise at my weakness, in ex-
pecting such effects from a ring. I think he reasoned
with me some time upon the impossibility of the thing;
and at length urged me, in direct terms, to throw it
away. At first I was shocked at the proposal; but his
insinuations prevailed. I began to reason and doubt -
myself; and at last plucked it off my finger, and drop-
ped it over the ship's side into the water: which it had
no sooner touched, than I saw, the same instant, a ter
rible fire burst out from a range of the mountains, (a
part of the Alps), which appeared at some distance be-
hind the city of Venice. I saw the hills as distinct as
if awake, and they were all in flames. I perceived too
late my folly; and my tempter, with an air of insult, in-
-formed me, that all the mercy God had in reserve for
me was comprised in that ring, which I had wilfully
thrown away. I understood that I must now go with
him to the burning mountains; and that all the flames
I saw were kindled upon my account. I trembled,
and was in a great agony; so that it was surprising I
did not then awake: but my dream continued; and
when I thought myself upon the point of a constrained
departure, and stood self-condemned, without plea or
hope, suddenly either a third person, or the same who
brought the ring at first, came to me, (I am not certain

which), and demanded the cause of my grief. I told him the plain case, confessing that I had ruined myselfwilfully, and deserved no pity. He blamed my rashness; and asked, if I should be wiser supposing I had my ring again? I could hardly answer to this; for I thought it was gone beyond recall. I believe, indeed, I had not time to answer, before I saw this unexpected friend go down under the water, just in the spot where I had dropped it; and he soon returned, bringing the ring with him. The moment he came on board, the flames in the mountains were extinguished, and my seducer left me. Then was "the prey taken from the "hand of the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered." My fears were at an end, and with joy and gratitude I approached my kind deliverer to receive the ring again: but he refused to return it, and spoke to this effect: "If you should be intrusted with this ring again, you "would very soon bring yourself into the same distress; you are not able to keep it: but I will preserve it for you, and, whenever it is needful, will produce it in your behalf."-Upon this I awoke in a state of mind not to be described: I could hardly eat or sleep, or transact my necessary business, for two or three days. But the impression soon wore off, and in a little time I totally forgot it; and I think it hardly occurred to my mind again, till several years afterwards. It will appear, in the course of these papers, that a time came, when I found myself in circumstances very nearly resembling those suggested by this extraordinary dream, when I stood helpless and hopeless upon the brink of an awful eternity: and I doubt not but, had the eyes of my mind been then opened, I should have seen my grand enemy, who had seduced me wilfully to renounce and cast away my religious profession, and to involve

myself in the most complicated crimes; I say, I should probably have seen him pleased with my agonies, and waiting for a permission to seize and bear away my soul to his place of torment. I should perhaps have seen likewise, that Jesus, whom I had persecuted and defied, rebuking the adversary, challenging me for his own, as a brand plucked out of the fire, and saying, "Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom." However, though I saw not these things, I found the benefit; I obtained mercy. The Lord answered for me in the day of my distress; and, blessed be his name, he who restored the ring, (or what was signified by it), vouchsafes to keep it. O what an unspeakable comfort is this, that I am not in mine own keeping! "The Lord is my shepherd." I have been enabled to trust my all in his hands; and I know in whom I have believed. Satan still desires to have me, that he might sift me as wheat; but my Saviour has prayed for me, that my faith may not fail. Here is my security and power; a bulwark against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. But for this, many a time and often (if possible) I should have ruined myself since my first deliverance; nay, I should fall, and stumble, and perish still, after all that the. Lord has done for me, if his faithfulness was not engaged in my behalf, to be my sun and shield even unto death."Bless the Lord, O my soul!"

Nothing very remarkable occurred in the following part of that voyage. I returned home December 1743, and soon after repeated my visit to Kent, where I protracted my stay in the same imprudent manner I had done before; which again disappointed my father's designs in my favour, and almost provoked him to disown me. Before any thing suitable offered again,

I was impressed, (owing entirely to my own thoughtless conduct, which was all of a piece), and put on board a tender: it was at a critical juncture, when the French fleets were hovering upon our coast, so that my father was incapable to procure my release. In a few days I was sent on board the Harwich man of war at the Nore: I entered here upon quite a new scene of life, and endured much hardship for about a month. My father was then willing that I should remain in the navy, as a war was daily expected, and procured me a recommendation to the captain, who took me upon the quarter-deck as a midshipman. I had now an easy life as to externals, and might have gained respect; but my mind was unsettled, and my behaviour very indifferent. I here met with companions who completed the ruin of my principles; and though I affected to talk of virtue, and was not so outwardly abandoned as afterwards, yet my delight and habitual practice was wickedness. My chief intimate was a person of exceeding good natural talents, and much observation: he was the greatest master of what is called the freethinking scheme I remember to have met with, and knew how to insinuate his sentiments in the most plausible way. And his zeal was equal to his address; he could hardly have laboured more in the cause, if he had expected to gain heaven by it. Allow me to add, while I think of it, that this man,

whom I ho

noured as my master, and whose practice I adopted so eagerly, perished in the same way as I expected to have done. I have been told, that he was overtaken in a voyage from Lisbon with a violent storm; the vessel and people escaped, but a great sea broke on board, and swept him into eternity.-Thus the Lord spares or punishes according to his sovereign pleasure!-But