uent in Prayer; the
Love and Fear of God more and more inflamed my Heart; my Faith was
enlarged, and my Spirit augmented, so that I said an hundred Prayers by
Day, and almost as many by Night. I arose before Day to my Prayers, in the
Snow, in the Frost, and in the Rain, and yet I received no Damage; nor was
I affected with Slothfulness; for then the Spirit of God was warm within
me." It was here he perfected himself in the _Irish_ Language, the
wonderful Providence of God visibly appearing in this Instance of his
Captivity, that he should have the Opportunity in his tender Years of
becoming well acquainted with the Language, Manners, and Dispositions of
that People, to whom he was intended as a future Apostle. He continued six
whole Years in Servitude, and in the seventh was released. There seems to
have been a Law in _Ireland_ for this Purpose, agreeable to the
Institution of _Moses_, that a Servant should be released the seventh
Year.

Having parted from his Master, after a great Variety of Distresses, he at
length arrived to his Parents, who received him with extraordinary Joy;
with these he remained two Years, and probably would much longer, had he
not by a Vision been quickened to a more active and glorious Life. In this
he thought he saw a Man coming to him from _Ireland_, whose Name was
_Victoricus_, with a great Number of Letters; that he gave him one of them
to read, in the Beginning of which were contained these Words,
_Vox-Hiberionacum_, the Voice of the _Irish_: While he was reading this
Letter, he thought the same Moment, that he heard the Voice of the
Inhabitants who lived near the Wood of _Foclut_, in the Barony of
_Tyr-Awley_, and County of _Mayo_, hard by the Western Sea, crying to him
with an audible and distinct Voice, "We intreat thee, holy Youth, to come
and walk among us." He was greatly amazed at this Vision, and awoke; it
animated him, however, to his future Studies and heavenly Progress; so far
even, that he tells us himself, he thanked God, that after many Years he
had dealt with the _Irish_, according to their crying out.

These early Scenes of this great Saint's Life, should, among many others,
serve as lessons of Charity, Consideration, and Humility, to the Rich, the
Great, the Proud, and the Wanton; who may recollect that, altho' he was
well born, he was nevertheless, in the most vigorous Season of Life, a
Slave and a Swine-Herd: Happy, though wretched Servitude! In which, his
leisure Hour