The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 286 pages of information about The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 286 pages of information about The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African.
to the unconverted.  We parted, and the next day I went on board again.  We sailed for Spain, and I found favour with the captain.  It was the fourth of the month of September when we sailed from London; we had a delightful voyage to Cadiz, where we arrived the twenty-third of the same month.  The place is strong, commands a fine prospect, and is very rich.  The Spanish galloons frequent that port, and some arrived whilst we were there.  I had many opportunities of reading the scriptures.  I wrestled hard with God in fervent prayer, who had declared in his word that he would hear the groanings and deep sighs of the poor in spirit.  I found this verified to my utter astonishment and comfort in the following manner: 

On the morning of the 6th of October, (I pray you to attend) or all that day, I thought that I should either see or hear something supernatural.  I had a secret impulse on my mind of something that was to take place, which drove me continually for that time to a throne of grace.  It pleased God to enable me to wrestle with him, as Jacob did:  I prayed that if sudden death were to happen, and I perished, it might be at Christ’s feet.

In the evening of the same day, as I was reading and meditating on the fourth chapter of the Acts, twelfth verse, under the solemn apprehensions of eternity, and reflecting on my past actions, I began to think I had lived a moral life, and that I had a proper ground to believe I had an interest in the divine favour; but still meditating on the subject, not knowing whether salvation was to be had partly for our own good deeds, or solely as the sovereign gift of God; in this deep consternation the Lord was pleased to break in upon my soul with his bright beams of heavenly light; and in an instant as it were, removing the veil, and letting light into a dark place, I saw clearly with the eye of faith the crucified Saviour bleeding on the cross on mount Calvary:  the scriptures became an unsealed book, I saw myself a condemned criminal under the law, which came with its full force to my conscience, and when ‘the commandment came sin revived, and I died,’ I saw the Lord Jesus Christ in his humiliation, loaded and bearing my reproach, sin, and shame.  I then clearly perceived that by the deeds of the law no flesh living could be justified.  I was then convinced that by the first Adam sin came, and by the second Adam (the Lord Jesus Christ) all that are saved must be made alive.  It was given me at that time to know what it was to be born again, John iii. 5.  I saw the eighth chapter to the Romans, and the doctrines of God’s decrees, verified agreeable to his eternal, everlasting, and unchangeable purposes.  The word of God was sweet to my taste, yea sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.  Christ was revealed to my soul as the chiefest among ten thousand.  These heavenly moments were really as life to the dead, and what John calls an earnest of the Spirit[V].  This was indeed unspeakable, and I firmly believe undeniable by many.  Now

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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.