is the very man I faw in my dream! 'and if every part of it hold true, he will take for his text, Pfal. cxvi. 7, Return unto thy reft, O my foul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." When he rofe to pray, he was all attention, and' every fentence went to her heart. Having finifhed prayer, he took that very paffage for his text; and there God met with her in a faving manner; and the at laft obtained what fhe fo long fought for in vain elfewhere, reft in Chrift, to her troubled foul.

a

N. B. The publisher thinks it only neceffary to fay, that the foregoing account of Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Tooly, is fufficiently authenticated by the gentleman from whom the writer of the letter had it, the Rev. Dr. Wood, at Norwich.

1.

FRENCH

MERCY,

Exemplified in the Cafe of Monfieur ISAAC LEFEVRE.

•·MR. Ifaac Lefevre, was born at Chatelchinon, in the Ne

vernois, of honourable parents. He was fent to Geneva in the year 1683, where he went through the courfe of Philofophy. Afterwards he went to Orleans, and ftudied the Law. Having taken his Degrees, he went to Paris, and was admitted by the Advocate-General, as one of the Advo cates of the Court of Parliament. After living fome time in Paris, he took a journey into Poiton, to settle the affairs of a Lady of quality: thence he returned to Paris, just at the ime that the Edi&t of Nantz was revoked. Knowing then there was no fafety for him in France, he determined to retire into Switzerland. But as he was on the way, he was feized on the 4th of February, 1686, and fent to Bezanfon, where

This has been published before.

he

“I

They then fent him to After three weeks he was

he was ftripped of all that he had. prison, and clapped him in irons. tried, and condemned the fame day. The day following he was put into the dungeon. "I am, faid he, in a place where the air is infected, and feed on fuch diet as would forme:ly have poifoned me. But I find fuch fweetnefs and confola. tion as I could not have hoped for."

2. After two months and fome days, he was removed to Dijon. He came thither on the 30th of May: but the hardhip of the journey, added to the irons which were left upon him, who was of a delicate conftitution, had bruifed and hurt him greatly. In a letter, dated June 1, he fays, "I fuffer great pains all over my body: and I fhould not have come alive to Dijon, but that my irons were taken off at Aufonne, and I was fet on horseback; whereas I was before in a waggon, and in a killing pofture, preft on all fides. I am now treated with humanity, and begin to recover the firength I ftand in need of, to bear the chains that are preparing for us."

3. Having continued in prison at Dijon about two months, he was conducted to Chalons, where the chain arrived from Paris. Hence they were to go by water, and their chains were fomething lighter. Yet the journey was uneafy enough. In his letter from Marfeilles, of Auguft 20th, he fays, "It feems to me, as if I had been gone above fix months from Dijon. My flesh and my skin are grown old, and I have been as in the pains of death. Indeed, I could have expected nothing elfe, had we not made a little flop at Avignon. I am now mixt with a very great number of galley-flaves, and have been eight and forty hours, without being able to close my eves, or to eat or drink what they gave me. But my life is not precious to me. If it were God's will, I could leave it with delight. Yet the Lord works miracles to preferve it to me." He came to Marfelles in Auguft, and being very ill, was put into the Hofpital for the galley-flaves. But being a hule better in September, he was removed to the Galley, Grande

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Grande Reale. "I went on board, fays he, yesterday, and was immediately loaded with irons. But to all this, I oppofe the will of God. If poverty, fickness, and pain, are what he chufes, why fhould I refuse them? If he fhould kill me, yet will I hope in him, and praise him all the days of my life. I lie on a board about two feet broad: I have nothing to cover me; but the flaves near me have ftript themfelves of their own clothes for me."

4. At the intreaty of some of his friends, he was put on board another galley, named the Magnificent, where at first he was used more tenderly. But after two days, the liberty of feeing his friends was taken from him, and of conferring with them by writing. Neither was he fuffered to converfe with. any of thofe that were in the fame galley, being always faftened to the chain, which was kept fhorter than ufual. At that time he was fent for by the Bishop, and earnestly folicited to change his Religion. But this only confirmed his refolution, to fuffer all things for the Truth's fake.

5. He continued on board the galley, only till April 1687: and was then, by an order from above, put into a dungeon, in Fort St. John, at Marfeilles. As he was now cut off from all intercourse with men, being conftantly guarded day and night, his friends had very feldom any opportunity of hearing whether he was dead or alive, during this hard captivity, which lafted fixteen years. His prison was a vault which was formerly a ftable; but being too moift, was found unhealthy for the horses. There was ftill a rack and manger in it. No light came in, but by the door; the upper part whereof was broken, and grated within and without. The air of it was foul, and of an ill fcent; every thing moistened and rotted in it.

6. At first he lay two or three nights in a moift manger, and above a month on a fhort and narrow cheft, having no covering but his galley-flave jacket. Nevertheless, he llept quietly, only fometimes the cold interrupted his fleep: but this caufed a defluxion in his teeth; pains in the veins, rheumatifin,

rheumatifm, and at laft a continual fever. But though he was of a weak conftitution, yet God raifed him up five feve ral times from extraordinary fickneffes. In common he had fharp colics in his ftomach, and flying pains, especially in his neck and shoulders. Nobody durft come near him, nor even look at the door, much lefs fpeak to him.

7. At some intervals of times, his pains redoubling, he thought he was not far from death: under which apprehenfion he faid, "I declare before God, I freely forgive all that have offended me in any manner whatfoever. It is not likely 1 fhould live much longer, unless God touch the hearts of thofe that give orders for my food: the aliments which they give me being full of naftinefs and impurities, I must die foon, unlefs God acts in an extraordinary manner on my body and on my food." Of this he spoke again in the year 1699, that they had afflicted him by the corruption of all that they gave him either to eat or drink. But "the Lord, faid he, fupports my weak nature, in a miraculous manner." Yea, he comforts and fupports me fenfibly; he gives me firength to fuffer my affliction with joy. And if I fhould tell you, that I am fometimes fo happy, that I forget all I have fuffered, I should tell you the truth!

8." They do not forget, fays he in another letter, to try all ways to weary out my patience. The Mayor promised me a mattress and covering; my mattrefs being quite rotten, and my covering all rags: but I never had them. Yet whatever my anguish be, I esteem it more expedient, to fuffer life than to defire death. As God will be glorified by my fufferings, the longer they are and the harder to be borne, the more glory he will have by them: his will be done. I am always purfued with the fame violence. There is no intermiflion. They deny me all manner of commerce with the living, and alfo with the dead. But the Lord, who is my God and my protector, has had pity on my weakness, and given me fuch patience as I never dared to hope for. Glory be to his Name!"

9. In

9. In November 1695, he wrote thus, "I now enter into the tenth year of my fufferings, and by the grace of God, I have neither loft spirit, nor faith, nor patience; nor have I totally loft my health. My dear kinfwoman, the Lord hath heard your prayers, and those of his fervants that intercede for me. He has fpared my weakness; he has pitied my frailty; and he will finish what concerneth me. If I was but cleanfed from all my fins, I fhould be too happy. But I confefs with grief and confufion, that I am a man of little faith. I am a finner. I have defired my liberty with too much fervency." Mean time his mind was conftantly employed, in meditating on the myfleries of falvation, of which he fpake with as much light and folidity, as the most accomplifhed divine. To fome who wondered at this, he said, I never learnt the things I tell you, till I was a galley-flave and a prifoner of Jefus Chrift. Nor am I the only one that has learnt to speak in irons, and to pray on the fea. My dear companions have received the fame grace."

10. Notwithstanding all the pains that were taken to prevent it, he found means for feveral years to correfpond now and then, with his friends; but for two years and four months, this intercourse was quite cut off. By what means, it was reftored we do not know. But he looked upon it as a fingular favour from God: and he feems to have enjoyed that privilege, more or lefs, from the year 1699, to near the end of his life.

11. In June 1700, he writes, "The corruption and malignity of the food which they give me, has ftrange effe&is on my body. It caufes me to void more or lefs blood every day. I had formerly foine days of eafe: but for fome time, this has been my daily bread.a And very often it gives me the colic in my breast and ftomach for divers hours. The last fit made

There is no doubt but poifon was mixed with it, as his life was a conflant reproach to them.

me