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fake-that I meet with this, but for your establishment. Is there not a beauty in this providence ?

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After a wrestling with defluxion in his throat, he faid the Lord has fent another meffenger for me, to haften me home. The other day I would have been away without this glorous evidence of the grace ofGod; but this is more for my advantage, that I am thus tried and comforted, I'm haftning, and I'll not complain of the flow paces of time. Why are his chariot wheels fo long a coming? But I'll not fay fo any Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. 'Come here all ye that fear the Lord, and I'll tell you what he hath done for my foul.' Then he caufed a minister pray, and faid, pray that he may enable me for the laft ftroke, fo as I may be a conqueror, and more than con queror.'

more:

To his fon he faid, David, come man, O feek thy fathers God. I'm like the flave born in God's house, and I, my wife and bairns are the Lord's therefor let your ear be bored, to his poft-door, and be his fervant for ever: And if ye ferve him, my God will bless you, he'll blefs you for ever. Come my dear, your grandfather and grandmother are in heaven. Is it not hard, man to die well, for them that do not know God in Christ? If you knew the fore skin that I have, you would cry and * greet; I'm

not greeting, nor crying. How glad i, e. weep. would I be, if I knew my little ftock,

David would be a witnefs for God, a fufferer for the name of Christ, striving and refifting even unto blood? I rather have you fuch, than an emperor of the univerfe, and would rejoice more in it. Were I called to it, I would fpend my blood, and go through fire and water for it.

Then he said, if I would fay, that I would speak no more in the name of the Lord, it would be like a fire within my breaft. I was early mufing with my

felf

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felf, how I would ftand the shock, and be a martyr against popery; I lay one night musing about it, and flept none, &c.

(This is to be found in the memoirs of his life.)

When fome look'd to him as if they had been amaz'd, he said, why look ye stedfastly on me, as if by my might, or power, I were fo? Not I, but the grace of God in me; 'tis the fpirit of God that fupports me. I'm here on a death-bed, going to heaven. 'Tis but a little time, and corruption will be rais'd in incorruption.

To his daughter he faid, Margaret, I charge you to feek early the God of your father; he's a wonderworking God.

To his wife he faid, be not difcouraged, my dear, at the unavoidable confequences of nature which I was under,'tis an evidence that there's but a very little; and death will be fwallowed up in victory; the body will be fhaken into pieces. I'm washing away, blef fed be God; and yet my head is as compofed as it was before my fickness.

To another of his daughters, he faid, Janet, O feek God; he's good, he'll be a better father than I am; you are born in his houfe. I have not a child, I have given you all to him; I leave you to the a bundant grace of God. I'm much concern'd for the young generation; I fear they fhall all caft at religion together,

To a gentlewoman in the parish of Ceres, he said, behold your dying minister; I'm hastning to eternity, and haltning to heaven as fast as I can : I'm dying in the faith of these truths, I preached among you; you may remember I preached on that text, When I heard, my belly trembled: My lips quivered at the voice: Rotteness entered into my bones, and 1 trembled in myfelf, that I might rest in the day of trouble: Hab. iii. 16. Then you may remember, I told you, that there was a reft to the Lord's people even in trouble;

and

and now I feal this reft:)! I'm we'll hir'd to all this; I have perfect compofure of fpirit, perfect peace without any roving, or any thing that's the effect of diforder:0 what wonderful power is that! Tell my parishoners, that my God is bleffing me, that the fingle mints I made at ferving him in preaching the gospel of his fon, the Lord has already rewarded it to a miracle: Now I find the gospel the power of God to Jalvation, all forts of falvation. All in our religion is experimental, it will bide the proof. Well Mrs. God bless you, and blefs your bairns, and make them a bleffing to you; feek God, make earnest of religion. O what fhall Irender to the Lord! bleft be God that he gives fo honourable an occasion to commend him.

To one of his children he faid, if you forfake the God of your father, that has been fo kind to me, this will be a witness against you: here I am a witnefs, that our rock is not as their rock:

Then to fome prefent he faid, my moisture is much exhausted this night; but the dew lies all night on my branches, the dew that waits not for man, nor tarries for the fons of men. O what cannot grace do! how have I formerly fretted and repin'd at the hundredth part of the trouble I have on my body now. Here you fee a man dying a monument of the glori ous power of admirable aftonishing grace: And generations to come shall call me blessed. Follow my advice, study the power of religion, 'tis the power of religion and not a name that will give the comfort I find. Now, firs, here is fomething to be improven for a while, it will take telling; there is telling in this providence, it will coft me telling to eternity. If there be fuch a glory in his conduct about me now, O what - will be in that, to fee the Lamb in the midst of the throne, to fee the Lamb that was flain in the midst of the throne, the Lamb that has the feven horns, and the feven eyes? I have peace in the midft of pain;

and

and O how much of that I have had for a time past! My peace has been like a river, not a difcompos'd thought. There has been fome little fuggeftions fince I got the great affault of my enemies in one league together; I got one affault, and I was like to fall; But fince the Lord rebuked them, there's not a difcompos'd thought, but all calm. To the minifters he faid, brethren, blefs God on my behalf, and pray I may be helped. I've been grappling with the king of terrors, and I find he is conquerable; I found the rattling of his † drum in my throat, and I was not affrighted :

+Meaning the choaking defluxion in his throat

I'm melting away bravely.

To two of the students he faid, well lads you fee your dying master confined within these four stoops, and by the grace of God, is what he is, he is dying as one unto whom the Lord is fhewing himself marvel. loufly good: This is no roving of a fick man; I bless God I never had my judgment more distinct all my days, an evidence of the reality of religion. When the defluxion came up, he called for a little twist, and said, I think all the fubstance of my body shall evacuate this way, but with a fmiling countenance faid, 'tis welcome: Now, my body is wafting like a piece of brae by a mighty current; and yet the power of God keep sme up.

To a gentlewoman he faid, you are come to fee your old dying friend, a wonder indeed, but a wonder of mercy: I've preached from the pulpit, but now I'm preaching from a death-bed; and I would be content, if fenfible prefence were continued, to fpeak till flesh and bones were washen and wasted to nothing. Labour to get a clear view of him, The God of glory appear'd to me; and the first fight I got of him, was fuch, as it wan my heart to him, so as it was never loos'd; though I have had many wandrings, yet I can fay, I was never myself, till I wan

back

269 back to the center again. Follow me, take my word for it, he is a good mafter, ye'll never rue the fervice; and I'm well hired to it. He took a little rattle in his throat, and said, This may be irksome to you; but every messenger of death is pleasant to me, and I am only detained here,that I may trumpet forth his praise a little longer.

About noon he faid, I was just thinking on the pleasant spot of earth that I'll get to ly in, befide Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Forrester, principal Ander/on, &c. and I'll come in as the little one among them, and I'll get my pleasant George in my hand;

and O we'll be a a knot of ‡ bony duft. i. e. comely. Then he faid, it will not be all my fore

bones that will make me weary yet (as long as God gives me a tongue to fpeak, and judgment to conceive to preach his gospel.)

He broke out in frequent admiration with the greatest warmness at what he felt: Strange, faid he, this body washing away to corruption, and yet my intellectuals are fo lively, that I cannot fay there is the leaft alteration, the leaft decay of judgment or memory; fuch vigorous actings of my fpirit toward God, and things that are not feen! but faid he, Not I, not I, but the grace of God in me. Not unto us, not unto us; which ftill I must have on my heart, fince curs'd felf, is apt to fteal glory from God; here I must watch, left the enemy give me a wound.

Then to fome minifters when they came in, he faid, what a demonftration has God given you and me of the immortality of the foul by the vigour of my intellectuals, and the lively actings of my spirit » after God, and the things of God, now when my body is fo low, and also pain'd.

At night he fell very weak, and after a fore conflict, prayer being ended, he faid, Ebenezer. One faid,' the Lord has helped hitherto, and he will help.

Sometime thereafter he faid, good is the will of

the