The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African: Written By HimselfEquiano, Olaudah
History
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African: Written By Himself
Equiano, Olaudah
Enslaved persons -- Great Britain -- Biography; Enslaved persons -- United States -- Biography; Equiano, Olaudah, 1745-1797
The good man gave me a pocket Bible and Allen's Alarm 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].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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