SOME years ago an English Gentleman, by a par­ticular providence, had occasion to be in North America, where, among other adventures, the follow­ing circumstance occurred to him, which is related in his own words.

"Every day's observation convinces me that the children of God are made so by his own especial grace and power, and that all means, whether more or less, are equally effectual with him, whenever he is pleased to employ them for conversion.

"In one of my excursions, while I was in the pro­vince of New York, I was walking by myself over a considerable plantation, amused with its husbandry, and comparing it with that of my own country, till I came within a little distance of a middle-aged negro, who was tilling the ground. I felt a strong incli­nation, unusual with me, to converse with him. After asking him some little questions about his work, which he answered very sensibly, I wished him to tell me, whether his state of slavery was not disa­greeable to him, and whether he would not gladly exchange it for his liberty. "Massah, (said he, looking seriously upon me) I have wife and children; my massah takes care of them, and I have no care to provide any thing; I have a good massah, who teach me to read; and I read good book, that make me happy." I am glad, replied I, to hear you say so; and pray what is the good book you read? "The Bible, massah, God's own good book." Do you un­derstand friend, as well as read this book? for many [Page 3]can read the words well; who cannot get hold of the true and good sense. "O massah, says he, I read the book much before I understand; but at last I felt pain in my heart; I found things in the book that cut me to pieces." Aye, said I, what things were they? "Why massah, I found that I had bad heart, massah, a very bad heart indeed: I felt pain, that God would destroy me, because I was wicked, and done nothing as I should do. God was holy, and I was very vile and naughty; so I could have nothing from him but fire and brimstone in hell." In short, he entered in­to a full account of his convictions of sin, which were indeed as deep & piercing as any I had ever heard of; and what scriptures came to his mind, which he had read, that both probed him to the bottom of his sinful heart, and were made the means of light and comfort to his soul. I then enquired of him, what ministry or means he made use of, and found that his master was a Quaker, a plain sort of man, who had taught his slaves to read, but who had not, how­ever, ever conversed with this negro upon the state of his soul. I asked him how he got comfort under all this trial? "O massah, says he, it was Christ gave me comfort by his dear word. He bade me come unto him, and he would give me rest, for I was very weary and heavy laden. And here he went through a line of the most precious texts in the bible, shewing me, by his artless comment upon them as he went a long, what great things God had done in the course of some years for his soul. Being rather more acquainted with doctrinal truths, and the anal­ogy of the bible, than he had been, or in his situa­tion could easily be; I had a mind to try how far a simple untutored experience, greaciously given with­out the usual means, could carry a man from some speculative errors; and therefore asked him several questions about the merit of works, the justification of a sinner, the power of grace, and the like. I own [Page 4]I was as much astonished at, as I admired, the sweet spirit and simplicity of his answers, with the heaven­ly wisdom that God had put into the mind of this negro. His discourse, flowing merely from the richness of grace, with a tenderness and expression for "beyond the reach of art," perfectly charmed me. On the other hand, my entering into all his feelings, together with an account to him, which he had never heard before, that thus and thus the Lord in his mercy dealt with all his children, and had dealt with me, drew streams of joyful tears down his black face, that we looked upon each-other, and talked with that inexpressible glow of christian affection, that made me more than ever believe, what I have often too thoughtlessly professed to believe, the communion of saints. I shall never forget how the poor excel­lent creature seemed to hang upon my lips, and to eat my very words, when I enlarged upon the love of Christ to poor sinners, the free bounty and ten­der mercy of God, the frequent and delightful sense he gives of his presence, the faith he bestows in his promises, the victories this faith is enabled to get over trials and temptations, the joy and peace in believing, the hope in life and death, and the glori­ous expectation of immortality. To have taken off his eager, delighted, animated, air and manner, would have been a masterly-piece for a Reynolds.— He had never heard such a discourse, nor found the opportunity of hearing it before. He seemed like a man who had been thrown into a new world, and at length had found company. Though my conversa­tion lasted, at least, two or three hours, I scarce ev­er enjoyed the happy swiftness of time so sweetly in all my life. We knew not how to part. He would accompany me as far as he might; and I felt, for my part, such a delight in the artless, savory, solid, unaffected experience of this dear soul, that I could have been glad to see him often then, or to see his [Page 5]like at any time now. But my situation rendered this impossible. I therefore took an affectionate adieu, with an ardor equal to the warmest and the most ancient friendship, telling him, that neither the colour of his body, nor the condition of his present life, could prevent him from being my dear brother in out dear Saviour; and that, though we must part now, never to see each other again any more in this world, I had no doubt of our having another joyful meeting in our Father's home, where we should live together, and love one another through out along and a happy eternity. "Amen. Amen, my dear massah; God bless you, and poor me too, for ever and ever." If I had been an angel from heaven, he could not have received me with more evident delight than he did; nor could I have considered him with a more sympathetic regard, if he had been a long known christian of the good old sort, grown up into my affections in the course of many years." ¹

WITH regard to her temper of mind, her views of supernatural objects, and her apprehensions with regard to the state of her soul towards God, she related as follows:

From my youth up to my first awakening, I lived without God in the world, in a stupified forgetful­ness of the obligations I had ever been under to him and of the solemn account I must one day render unto him of the deeds done in the body, and of all my views and aims; till it pleased a sovereign God two years ago last July, to lend his Spirit to convince me of my sins, and lay open to my view the awful danger that was impending over me. At which time my sins were set in order before me, in such dread­ful arra [...] and the enmity of my heart, and my native opposition to God, arising to my view, produced such distress and agony of soul, as to overpower all [...] of bodily pain, though I had for some time be­fore been exercised with severe distress in body, and was at this time reduced to such a state of weakness, accompanied with continual wrecking pain, that my life was almost despaired of from day to day.

It appears to me astonishing upon every recollec­tion th [...] the agony of my mind did not dissolve the [...] of my nature, and how I could subsist under the [...] and agony of such a wounded spirit. It seems to me now, that had it continued much longer, it must unavoidably have overpowered the remains of life in me, and put a period to my existence on [Page 7]earth. But after having remained for several days [...] this anguish of spirit, and dreadful bondage of soul, I found relief in a manner most unexpected.

After I had said myself down on my bed, my mind was led to a most delightful and realizing view of the entire safety of trusting in the Divine Power and Mercy; that there was such a fulness in God, of that which I needed for relief and comfort, that my heart within me was constrained to rejoice, and could not but roll my burden upon the Lord. At this time the words of the Psalmist, in which he says, Thou hast brought my feet up out of the miry clay," &c. were to my soul sweeter than honey or the honey comb; and also the 16th Hymn of the third book of Doctor WATTS" Hymns, was to my soul like a feast of fat things, and of wine upon the [...]ees. For some considerable time after this, I en­joyed, almost without any intermission, a most sweet and refreshing sense of the beauty and glory of di­vine objects. But not understanding the treachery of my own heart, and the deceitfulness of sin, I was allured away by degrees, into a forgetfulness of God, and from a close walk with him, through an appre­hension that I might innocently indulge myself in joining with young people in what is usually term­ed civil merriment; and which I was induced to do more especially and principally that I might not be­come an [...] ridicule among them. But before [...] was a [...] the danger I had incurred by turning in such a manner to vanity, I found that my heart was sensibly alienated from God, and my whole soul was overwhelmed in guilt and darkness, and during [...] of my persisting to join with young compa­ny in what is termed civil recreation and merriment, [...] felt those lashes and stings of conscience, which be­fore this I had ever been an utter stranger to. In [...] state of sensible guilt and darkness, I continued [Page 8]like one forsaken of God, and shut out from his pre­sence, till the first day of last July, when I was seiz­ed with convulsions, which came upon me with such violence that it appeared to myself and others, that my animal frame must yield to the force of the dis­order, and my life soon come to a period.

She continued in this situation till the night of the eleventh of July, when she was suddenly seized with a most violent cramp in her stomach, which was ac­companied with such agony and distress that it ap­peared impossible for her to live from one hour to another. In this situation she continued till the fol­lowing night, when the cramp in her stomach in­creased to such a degree, that the constant wreck and agony of body constrained her to a continual rolling and tumbling on her bed, during which time, she re­mained speechless, but appeared to have her senses; for when any spoke, she would take them by the hand and intimate that she understood what they said. All hopes of life were now at an end in the view of the family, and neighbors, who had come together at the house on this occasion. But after having contin­ued in this extremity of distress, till about midnight, she appeared to be more easy; upon which the neigh­bors retired to their several homes. But soon after this she was suddenly seized again, and supposed by the family to be dead; and accordingly the neigh­bors were called together to the house, with the tidings that POLLY was dead.

Upon the arrival of the nearest neighbor, he ob­served that she lay stretched out on her back, with her eyes about half open, and the sight of her eyes turned up into her head — She appeared at first sight to be entirely lifeless; but upon trial, he found for once, some motion in her pulse.—After lying in this posture for an hour or more, she suddenly fetch­ed a long sigh, and opened her eyes, and related as

[Page 9] I have seen hell naked before my eyes, and fully expected to plunge into it. The sight was dismal beyond all discription. It was a region of most dis­mal darkness and smoke. In the midst of these dole­ful shades appeared to my view a person whom I knew; and after having had sight of him, he appear­ed to sink down into the darkness and smoke of the horrible pit. I heard the groans of the damned spi­rits, which indicated that agony and distress which is beyond all utterance or conception. In the utmost extremity of danger, and when I appeared to myself to be ready to plunge into the dismal gulf of dark­ness and misery, my Saviour took me by the hand, and told me to follow him. Upon which he led me thro a place resembling the most dismal miry clay; and from thence thro a hideous wilderness; after passing which, every object which opened to my view, appeared to be cloathed with an inexpressible beauty. My Saviour addressed me, and said, he had brought my feet out of the miry clay, and had set them upon a rock; and he himself appeared to be the rock up­on which I stood. I was admitted into the heavenly world, where the Lord looked upon me, and smil­ed, and told me I must return and warn a wicked world for a season: but should, in a short time, re­turn again. He told me I should be much more sick than I had been, but should wholly recover, and be well for a season. I saw thousands of the heavenly host cloathed in that beauty which cannot be uttered; and heard those songs of praise, the melody of which is beyond the power of language to describe.

Upon her having declared to the by-standers these discoveries, she remained for the space of three days and three nights without food or sleep: during the whole of which time she was almost incessantly em­ployed in praying and praising GOD, and warning others to prepare for death. After this she gradual­ly [Page 10]recovered to such a degree of health, as to be able to walk about the house; and, at times, to walk a­broad. In this space she frequently said that she should be much sicker than ever she bad been; but should certainly recover to a better state of health than she had enjoyed for four years past. She fre­quently pointed out the week in which she should be taken sick, and reduced to such a state of extreme weakness and distress; and accordingly, on Friday of the same week she had mentioned (which was the 27th of July) she was suddenly seized with a most violent cramp convulsion, which was soon accompa­nied with a profuse discharge of blood from her stomach; in which situation she continued till the 18th of August; during which time she was reduced apparently to the last extremity, and all visible pros­pect of the possibility of her living was now at an end.

For the space of sixteen days she was not known to turn herself in the bed except once. From Mon­day night to the Saturday night following, she re­mained intirely without food or drink, except for once she took down a little water, and upon her having for once swallowed a morsel of food, her sto­mach immediately rejected it. She was so weak that it was with dissiculty, and very seldom, she could make any one understand her by whispering in their ear. On Saturday she was tho't to be dy­ing; but as she had all along intimated to those a­bout her that she should certainly recover, so she now continued to intimate the same by signs, to the by-standers.—In this situation she continued till about eight o'clock in the evening, at which time, to the surprize of the by standers, she spoke out in plain and audible words, and said, "Stand by, and let me get up." Immediately upon which she sprang up from her bed, and walked the room with an asto­nishing nimbleness and alacrity, praising GOD'S and [Page 11]calling on the by standers to join with her to praise that blessed Saviour, who had appeared for her in that wonderful manner. But they stood like per­sons over whelmed in astonishment, to see the won­ders of GOD'S power displayed in such a manner, in restoring one to health and strength in a moment, who had been reduced to so low a state by extreme sickness.

Upon this recovery, she related that she faw one standing in white, who said to her, "If you will get up, you shall be able to walk; and you must go up to SCOTT'S;" (which was one mile distant from her house) and accordingly, that evening she rode to Capt. Scott's, and tarried some hours, and returned home; and having retired to bed, a little after day­light, she arose early on the morning, and before sun-rise, was on her way to meeting at Cornish, to the distance of five miles, from whence she returned home on the same day.

From the time of her recovery, she has enjoyed, hitherto, a much better state of health, than for four years past; and is now as well as is usual for a female of a delicate constitution; and remains an evident monument of the Divine power and good­ness.

The above mentioned POLLY DAVIS, requests that her most affectionate love may be presented to every reader; and asks leave to testify, That a senso of GOD'S love in the heart, is better than wine; and that all things which can be desired, are not to be compared to it. Under a sense of this, she asks liber­ty to call upon every reader to come and taste that the LORD is gracious; and that her fellow youth, in special, would remember him in their early days, and regard his glory as their governing object. She does intreat them, in special, to forsake the vani­ties of the world, and pride of life. And if they [Page 12]would walk with GOD, so as to enjoy the light of his countenance, and have comfort in their soul, they do sacredly abstain from, and forever abandon, that kind of foolish talking, and jesting, and that recrea­tion and merriment, which generally passes, even amongst many professors of Religion, for civil and innocent.—She certainly knows by what she has found upon trial, that these things, in their operati­on, will be like wormwood and gall to the soul.

Under a sense that we are called with an high and holy calling, she affectionately intreats every one to consider, what manner of persons we ought to be, in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for, and hastening unto, the day of GOD, that we may be found of him in peace at his appearing, and final­ly be received into his eternal kingdom.