Wesley Corpus

Sat. 22.--I rode from Nottingham to Epworth, and on Monday sei out for Grimsby ; but at Ferry we were at a full stop, the boatmen telling us we could not pass the Trent: it was as much as our lives were worth to put from shore before the storm abated. We waited an hour; but, being afraid it would do much hurt, if I should disappoint the congregation at Grimsby, I asked the men if they did not think it possible to get to the other shore : they said, they could not tell ; but if we would venture our lives, they would venture theirs. So we put off, having six men, two women, and three horses, in the boat. Many stood looking after us on the river side, in the middle of which we were, when, in an instant, the side of the boat was under water, and the horses and men rolling one over another. We expected the boat to sink every moment; but I did not doubt of being able to swim ashore. The boatmen were amazed as well as the rest ; but they quickly recovered and rowed for life. And soon after, our horses leaping overboard, lightened the boat, and we all came unhurt to land. They wondered what was the matter I did not rise, (for I lay along in the bottom of the boat,) and I wondered too, till, upon examination, [ found that a large iron crow, which the boatmen sometimes used, was (none knew how) run through the string of my boot, which pinned me down that I could not stir; so that if the boat had sunk, I should have been safe enough from swimming any further. The same day, and, as near as we could judge, the same hour, the boat in which my brother was crossing the Severn, at the New Passage, was carried away by the wind, and in the utmost danger of splitting upon the rocks. But OO Oe ee 300 REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. [Oct. 1743. the same God, when all human hope was past, delivered them as well as us.