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highly necessary in reference to the important object in contemplation.

Finding, in the spring, his health considerably improved, and his father having cheerfully consented to his receiving a foreign education for the ministry, as also to defray all the charges which might attend it,* he resolved to cross the Atlantic, and prepared accordingly.

*
[This is particularly mentioned, because it has been said that he was aided in the prosecution of his theological studies by the Church of New-York. Alluding to the gratuitous assertion, he remarks, — "Whether the Dutch Church of jNew-York refunded what I had paid for my passage in the packet from England to America, when I came over upon their call, as is usual in such cases, I do not now distinctly recollect. If they did, it is, certainly, all that they or any others ever paid, for any expenses while I was abroad." As his father was abundantly able, and perfectly willing to discharge all expenses, there was no need of any assistance.]

On the twelfth of May, 1766, every suitable preparation being made, he bid adieu to relatives and friends, and set sail for Amsterdam. He was now within a few weeks of the twentieth year of his age; and his youth, his delicate health, the object which he had in view in venturing upon the voyage, and other circumstances, imparted to the event, in the eyes of many, a peculiar and touching

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interest. Some of the New-York congregation already cherished the hope that he would, at a proper time, return to labour among them in holy things. The intercourse of a few months had given them a favourable opinion of his piety and talents, and he departed with their fervent prayers to Heaven in his behalf.

He had a tolerably pleasant voyage. That Almighty Being, who holds the winds in his fists, and the waters in the hollow of his hand, protected his young servant from dangers, and conveyed him safely to his particular destination. Once, indeed, the vessel, when sailing up the British Channel, was in quite a perilous situation. The captain had been unable, owing to cloudy weather, to take an observation for several days; and, mistaking the part of the Channel where he was, unwittingly got on the coast of France, very near the shore. The danger, at the moment it was discovered that the vessel was upon the coast of France, of her being wrecked, was considerable; but just then, a kind Providence sent a favourable wind, which wafted her in a few hours abreast of Dover.

On the twentieth of June, or in thirty-nine days after leaving New York, he arrived at Amsterdam. The attentions he now received from the several