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not grant this tranfportation, which has been refused by the prefbytery and fynod whereof I am a member; and who are beft acquainted with the ftate of the parish of Etterick, and what concerns me; whereas both that parith and I are known but to very few of our now Reverend Judges. But if it shall pleafe the holy wife God, to fuffer me now, for my trial and correction, to fall under your fentence, tranfporting me from the parish of Etterick to the parish of Clofeburn; fince it is a charge I have no clearness to undertake, I refolve, through grace, rather to fuffer, than to enter upon it blindfolded. Though, in the mean time, I cannot help thinking, it will be hard measure to punish me, because I cannot fee with other mens eyes; efpecially confidering that the prefbytery of Selkirk, and the Reverend Synod of Merfe and Teviotdale, have, by their refpective fentences, continued me in Etterick, upon very weighty grounds, contained in the

fentence of the latter in this affair.'

The deep concern I was in, naturally formed the delivery of the fpeech. Parties being removed, I went into a feat in the church alone, and gave myfelf to prayer, it being in the night-feafon: I caft myself over on the Lord, to follow still as he fhould go before, but no otherwife; and in cafe of the fentence going against me, was refolved to proteft for liberty to complain to the aflembly, and never to undertake that charge, unlefs light broke up to me, which had not yet appeared. But by a vaft majority, the fentence paffed in our favour: and others, as well as I, were convinced, that the fpeech I delivered, was that which influenced the Commiffion, and moved their compaffion.

Thus ended that weighty affair, for which feveral of the godly through the country, particularly thofe of the meetings for Chriftian fellowship in Galathiels, had been concerned before the Lord. About fourteen days before, at the facrament of Maxton, laying hold on the covenant, which is a covenant of promifes, I was helped to fome diftinctness in applying the feveral forts of promifes, as thofe for pardon, for fanctification, for direction, &c. and this with a particular view to that business then before Ine. And I must say, the Lord was with me in the management, giving me in that hour, both what to speak, and courage to speak it; and even when I ran, he left me not to stumble. One of our heritors that I had confidence

dence in, quite failed me: but Sir William Scot, the principal one, furprifed me with his perfonal appearance, and ftanding by me in judgement, which he had all along refufed. My inclinations in that matter having been moft injuriously mifreprefented by fome minifters and others, by the iffue they were filenced. That which was the real ground of my averfion to Clofeburn, was, that I had a moft uncomfortable life in Etterick, and my work among them had all along been exceeding heavy; through the difpofition of the people, felfish, conceited, and bending towards the fchifm, which has moft deep rooting in this place: hence proceeded contempt of ordinances, minifters, &c. to the great breaking of my fpirit. To have gone to Clofeburn, a parish of the fame character, I reckoned would have been juft to begin my weary task anew; in one word, to have caft me out of the frying-pan into the fire. Otherwise, to have been tranfported from Etterick, and gone any whither, where the gofpel would have been heard and received at my hands, would have been moft gladly embraced by me, if the Lord himself had but faid it. Befides, I had been advised, that the air did not agree with my wife's conftitution, and tended to impair her health; and that it would overcome me at length. Of thefe my heavy circumftances in this place, I had been speaking to Mr Murray, and he took occafion to provide this remedy of the transportation to Closeburn, which I looked on as ill as the difeafe, in respect of the uncomfortablenefs of my work, which the more wholefome air could not counterbalance to me. As for my wife's conduct in the matter, it was as became a Christian, fpoke forth much felf-denial, and refignation to the will of the Lord; making not the leaft uneafinefs to me in point of my confcience. The design of Providence in the whole affair, I take to have been, as at first, to rebuke the parish and myself; and, I would fain hope, to cement and knit us more closely for the time to come. And they feem to have a fenfe of the mercy.

This tofs hindered the adminiftering of the facrament this year; which was the only interruption it had met with, from the year 1710, that the courfe of it was begun.

PE

PERIOD XI.

From the tranfportation to Clofeburn refufed, to the notable breach in my health, and alteration in my conftitution.

After this affair was over, my wife went from Edin

burgh to her own country, to breathe her native air a while for her health, as had been advised in her cafe. That the air of Etterick did not agree with her, was declared to us and that was an argument used by the purfuers for the transportation. It was alfo declared to me, by my dear friend Dr Trotter, that it would overcome me too at length. But what could we do for relief in the cafe, in the circumftances above narrated?

But as the effects of the rebellion cured our people of their unnatural fondnefs for public confufions, fo that that difpofition never appeared among them fince, as before; fo the attempt to tranfport me to Clofeburn, did bring them to themfelves with refpect to me; and made my life among them tolerable. Howbeit, fince that time I have not wanted enough to keep me from forgetting where I am.

On Sept. 18. there was, by appointment of our feffion, a congregational thanksgiving obferved, upon the account of the favourable iffue of the process aforefaid; which was ground of thankfulness to me, as well as to the parish. But to balance the victory I had obtained, I came home from that ftruggle, with a fore rheumatic pain in my arm, which kept me a confiderable time after. On the thankfgiving-day Mr Henry Davidson minister of Galashiels, Mr Gabriel Wilfon, and I myself, preached.

Mr Davidfon aforefaid was, by that time, become a third with Mr Wilfon and me, in our bond of strict friendship: A man of great gravity, piety, and tendernefs; learned and judicious; well acquainted with books; a great preacher, delivering in a taking manner, masterly thoughts, in an unaffected elevated ftyle; endowed with a gift of prayer, in heavenly oratory, beyond any man that ever I knew; extremely modeft, and reserved in his temper; but a kind and affectionate friend. This friendhip, moft comfortable, and ufeful as a threefold cord, does by the mercy of God continue inviolated to this day.

We

We have always been fo happy as to speak the fame thing in public differences.

I had fent in unto Mr John Flint, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, who had revised the Fourfold State, and was noted for his skill in the Hebrew tongue, two fheets of the performance on Ezekiel, above mentioned. And, being in Edinburgh about the middle of November, he was pleased to tell me, that he judged no great thing could be done by the accents; and advised me to make no bustle about them, as he termed it. On the account of this difcouraging event, and other things, I did, on the 23d of this month, fpend fome time in prayer. And thinking on that study the conviction I had, made upon me by the light into fome paffages of the holy text, by means of the accentuation, remained to be fuch, as that I could not fee, how I could give over the study thereof. And having begged of God a token for good, I was that fame night furprised with a light into Jacob's vow, Gen. xxviii. 20. 21. 22." If God will be with me, and will keep me "in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, "and raiment to put on; fo that I come again to my fa"ther's house in peace: then shall the Lord be my God. "And this ftone, which I have fet for a pillar, fhall be "God's houfe: and of all that thou fhalt give me, I will "furely give the tenth unto thee," new to me, and that arifing from the accentuation.

By reafon of the many avocations I had now for a good time had, there was little done by me in that study, being of fuch a nature, as it could not be managed by parts. But a week or two after the October fynod, I made fome collections on the fubject. And the winter being come on, which in thefe days was the time I fpent to my greatest fatisfaction, I began, Nov. 27. to proceed in my book of materials mentioned above, p. 320.

Plying it eagerly thereafter, I was, on Dec. 22. being the Lord's day, at night, laid under a deep conviction of the woful difpofition of my heart, purfuing like fire the ftudy of the accents, fo that I could hardly ever get my heart from off them. I went to God, and bewailed my cafe, cried to get my heart under command, with refpect to that matter and I got, from my prayer-hearing God, my heart filled with love to Jefus Chrift, and fet for him as the one thing needful. I had by that time, through the good hand of God upon me, made a comfortable pro

grefs

grefs in that ftudy: but towards the latter end of that week, beginning to make the obfervations on the majors, I ftuck, day after day. At length I refolved, for that caufe, to fet fome time apart for prayer, which neceffarily fell to be Jan. 1. 1718. But the faid refolution being laid down, I was helped to make fome progrefs ere the appointed day came.

Jan. 1. I accordingly spent fome time in prayer, 1. On the account of my ftudy aforefaid; 2. For the diftrefs of the parish by the ftorm lying on the ground, &c and the Lord was with me. That day, reading 1 Sam. ii. in the original, new light broke out unto me, particularly as to two things, 1ft, The abufing of the text by interrogations, where it really bears none, particularly 2 Kings v. 26. Job ii. 10, 2d, Some inkling of quite new light into the repetition of the fame majors; with fome other things and my foul was filled with joy in the Lord, and I was made to cry out again and again, What am I !' As to the storm, the Lord feems to refufe to be intreated therein by congregational fasting with prayer: for it was in my mind to have had it done laft week; but on the Lord's day, when it might have been appointed, there was a fair thaw; and when the occafion of appointing it for that week was over, the thaw mifgave. I defigned it again on Tuesday the 7th, and offered to have kept it on the 6th but I was told the people could not be prefent, being to flee with their fheep that day and the next.

In February, having been for fome time diverted from my beloved study, and, whereas I was then to enter on the minors, being in much confufion, not knowing where to begin my work, I did on the 13th fpend fome time in prayer, for light, both as to matter and method; which laft I was obliged very particularly to feek of the Father of lights. And having effayed it the fame day, I found myself in a hopeful way as to both; and that the confidence I had, through grace, had in the Lord, was not in

vain.

At that time I was lecturing on Genefis; and being allured by what I met with in the original, ftudying my lectures, I began that week to tranflate as I went on. Afterwards I wrote notes too on the translation. This performance, begun at Gen. xxxvii. is carried on to Exod. xxxv. and to be found among my papers. But this way of doing retarded me in my main ftudy: wherefore

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