were soon convinced that instead of rowing to land, as they had intended, they had been proceeding further and further from it. Making now towards the quarter from which they perceived the sound to come, they found they had but just strength enough left to reach the shore.

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8. To these accounts of his remarkable preservation, given by himself to Mrs. Fletcher, I shall add some still more remarkable, which he gave to Mr. Samuel Webb of London, then residing at Madeley, as related in the short Narrative of his Life and Death, published by the Rev. Mr. Wesley.- "When I was a lad, I had a design to get some fruit out of my father's garden. The door being locked, I could not get in, but by climbing over the wall. This was very high; but with some difficulty I got to the top of it. As I was walking upon it, my foot slipped, and I fell down to the bottom. But just where I fell, a large quantity of fresh-made mortar was laid. I fell exactly upon it. This broke my fall, or it might have cost me my life."

Again: "Once as I was swimming by myself in a deep water, one end of a strong riband which bound my hair, getting loose, I know not how, and twisting about my leg, tied me, as it were, neck and heels. I strove with all my strength to disengage myself; but it was to no purpose. No person being within call, I gave myself up for lost. But when I had given over struggling, the riband loosed of itself."

"Another instance of the tender care which God had

over me, was as follows:- -One evening I and four young gentlemen, in high spirits, made a solemn agreement with each other, to swim next day to a rocky island, five miles distant from the shore. But this foolish adventure was within a very little of costing us all our lives. I and another, indeed, did with great difficulty and danger swim to the island. But when we came thither, the rock was so steep and smooth, that we could not possibly climb up. After swimming round several times, and making many ineffectual efforts, we thought we must perish there. But at length one of us found a place, where he made a shift to crawl up. He then helped his companion. The others swam about half way: a boat then took them up, when they were just sinking. Ano

ther boat, which we had ordered to follow us, afterwards came and took us home."

9. But the deliverance of which he gave an account in the year 1760 is yet more wonderful. "Some years since, I lived at a place very near the river Rhine. In that part it is broader than the Thames at London Bridge, and extremely rapid. But having been long practised in swimming, I made no scruple of going into it at any time. Only I was always careful to keep near the shore, that the stream might not carry me away. Once, however, being less careful than usual, I was unawares urawn into the mid-channel. The water there was extremely rough, and poured along like a galloping horse. I endeavoured to swim against it, but in vain, till I was hurried far from home. When I was almost spent, I rested upon my back, and then looked about for a landing-place, finding I must either land or sink. With much difficulty I got near the shore; but the rocks were so ragged and sharp, that I saw, if I attempted to land there, I should be torn in pieces. So I was constrained to turn again to the mid-stream: at last, despairing of life, I was cheered by the sight of a fine smooth creek, into which I was swiftly carried by a violent stream. A building stood directly across it, which I did not then know to be a powder-mill. The last thing I can remember was, the striking of my breast against one of the piles whereon it stood. I then lost my senses, and knew nothing more, till I rose on the other side of the mill. When I came to myself, I was in a calm, safe place, perfectly well, without any soreness or weariness at all. Nothing was amiss but the distance of my clothes, the stream having driven me five miles from the place where I left them. Many persons gladly welcomed me on shore one gentleman in particular, who said, ‘I looked when you went under the mill, and again when you rose on the other side; and the time of your being immerged among the piles was exactly twenty minutes."

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But some will say, "Why, this was a miracle!" “Undoubtedly," observes Mr. Wesley, "it was. It was not a natural event; but a work wrought above the power of nature, probably by the ministry of angels."

10. After Mr. Fletcher had gone through the usual

course of study at the University of Geneva, it was the desire of his parents that he should be a Clergyman. “And as far as nature can furnish a man," says Mr. Gilpin, "for offices of a sacred kind, perhaps there never was a person better qualified to sustain the character of a Minister of Jesus Christ than Mr. Fletcher. His disposition and habits, his sentiments and studies, his reverential awe of God, his insatiable thirst after truth, and his uncommon abhorrence of vice, gave his friends abundant reason to apprehend, that he was marked, at an early age, for the service of the church. Contrary, however, to all expectation, and contrary to the first designs of his family, before he had arrived at the age of twenty, he manifested views of a very opposite nature. His theological studies gave place to the systems of Vauban and Cohorn, and he evidently preferred the camp to the church. All the remonstrances of his friends, on this apparent change in his disposition, were totally ineffectual; and, had it not been for repeated disappointments, he would have wielded another sword than that of the Spirit. Happily, his projects for the field were constantly baffled and blasted by the appointments of that God who reserved him for a more important scene of action. His choice of the army is, however, to be imputed rather to principle than inclination. On the one hand, he detested the irregularities and vices to which a military life would expose him; on the other, he dreaded the condemnation he might incur, by acquitting himself unfaithfully in the pastoral office. He conceived it abundantly easier to toil for glory in fields of blood, than to labour for God, with unwearied perseverance, in the vineyard of the church. He believed himself qualified rather for military operations, than for spiritual employments; and the exalted ideas he entertained of the holy ministry, determined him to seek some other profession, more adapted to the weakness of humanity, and he preferred being an officer in the army to all others."

11. Mr. Fletcher himself, in a letter to the Rev. J. Wesley, dated November 24, 1756, a few weeks before he took orders, partly confirms these observations of Mr. Gilpin, and partly assigns an additional reason why he then declined the sacred office of the ministry. "From

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the time I first began to feel the love of God," says he, shed abroad in my soul, which was, I think, at seven years of age, I resolved to give myself up to him, and to the service of his church, if ever I should be fit for it; but the corruption which is in the world, and that which was in my heart, soon weakened, if not erased, those first characters which grace had written upon it. However, I went through my studies, with a design of going into orders; but afterwards, upon serious reflection, feeling I was unequal to so great a burden, and disgusted by the necessity I should be under to subscribe the doctrine of predestination, I yielded to the desire of those of my friends who would have me to go into the army. But just before I was quite engaged in a military employment, I met with such disappointments as occasioned my coming to England." Add to this, that he disapproved of the motives which had chiefly induced his parents to desire him to enter into the ministry. This appears from an observation which he made to Mrs. Fletcher one day, while he was showing her a piece of painting which he had executed when he was about sixteen years of age. "I was then studying fortification," said he, "with a view to go into the army. Once, indeed, my friends, having a prospect of obtaining preferment for me, wanted me to go into the church. But that motive I thought by no means right, and therefore still pursued my plan of being a soldier.” So that, according to his own account, he at that time declined the ministry for three reasons: 1st, Because he judged himself unqualified for so high and holy a calling 2dly, He scrupled subscribing the doctrine of predestination, which, it seems, he must have done, to have taken orders in Switzerland: and, 3dly, He disapproved of undertaking so sacred an office, as that of preaching the Gospel, in order to obtain preferment, or with any worldly views whatever.

12. Not being able to gain the consent of his parents to his going into the army, according to Mr. Wesley, he went away to Lisbon. Here, it seems, he gathered a company of his own countrymen, accepted of a Captain's commission, and engaged to serve the King of Portugal on board a man-of-war, which was just then getting ready with all speed, in order to sail to Brazil. He then

wrote to his parents, begging them to send a considerable sum of money. Of this he expected to make a vast advantage. But they refused him. Unmoved by this, he determined to go without it, as soon as the ship sailed. But in the morning, the maid waiting on him at breakfast let the tea-kettle fall, and so scalded his leg that he kept his bed for a considerable time after. During that time the ship sailed for Brazil. But it was observed, that ship was heard of no more.

13. His desire of being an officer in the army, Mr. Wesley tells us, continued after his return from Lisbon. And when he was informed, that his uncle, then a Colonel in the Dutch service, had procured a commission for him, he joyfully set out for Flanders. But just at that time the peace was concluded; and his uncle dying quickly after, his hopes were blasted, and he gave up all thoughts of being a soldier. And, being disengaged from all business, he thought it would not be amiss to spend a little time in England.

14. Coming to the Custom-house in London, with some other young gentlemen, none of whom could speak any English, they were treated with the utmost surliness and ill-manners by some brutish Custom-house officers. These not only took out, and jumbled together, all the things that were in their portmanteaus; but took away their letters of recommendation, telling them, "All letters must be sent by the post.' It is justly observed by Mr. Wesley, "that they are such saucy and ill-mannered wretches as these who bring up an evil report on our nation. Britons might well be styled hospitibus feri, if they were all like these vermin.”

15. From hence they went to an inn; but here they were under another difficulty. As they spoke no English, they could not tell how to exchange their foreign into English money; till Mr. Fletcher, going to the door, heard a well-dressed Jew talking French. He told him the difficulty they were under with regard to the exchange of money. The Jew replied, “Give me your money, and I will get it changed in five minutes." Mr. Fletcher, without delay, gave him his purse, in which were ninety pounds. As soon as he came back to his company, he told them what he had done. They all cried out with one voice, "Then your money is gone.