oresee what the ends of divine wisdom might be in all this, so I
was not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as I was his creature, had an
undoubted right by creation to govern and dispose of me absolutely as he
thought fit; and who, as I was a creature who had offended him, had
likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment he thought
fit; and that it was my part to submit to bear his indignation, because
I had sinned against him.

I then reflected, that God, who was not only righteous, but omnipotent,
as he had thought fit thus to punish and afflict me, so he was able to
deliver me; that if he did not think fit to do it, it was my
unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to his will;
and, on the other hand, it was my duty also to hope in him, pray to him,
and quietly to attend the dictates and directions of his daily
providence.

These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say, weeks and
months; and one particular effect of my cogitations on this occasion I
cannot omit; viz. one morning early, lying in my bed, and filled with
thoughts about my danger from the appearance of savages, I found it
discomposed me very much; upon which those words of the Scripture came
into my thoughts, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will
deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."

Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was not only
comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to God for
deliverance. When I had done praying, I took up my Bible, and opening it
to read, the first words that presented to me were, "Wait on the Lord,
and be of good cheer, and he shall strengthen thy heart: Wait, I say, on
the Lord." It is impossible to express the comfort this gave me; and in
return, I thankfully laid down the book, and was no more sad, at least,
not on that occasion.

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it
came into my thoughts one day, that all this might be a mere chimera of
my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I
came on shore from my boat. This cheered me up a little too, and I began
to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but
my own foot; and why might not I come that way from the boat, as well as
I was going that way to the boat? Again, I considered also, that I could
by no means tell for certain where I had trod, and where I had not; and
that if at last this was only the