great, and fometimes continued for feveral days; under these he was much given to fecret prayer, but concealed all his religious exercifes to the utmost of his power. Within a few months after his mother's death, he was feized four times with fevers, which rapidly fucceeded one another, and brought him fo low, that almost everý perfon who faw him loft all hopes of his recovery i though he did not expect immediate death in these troubles, yet apprehensions of eternity exceedingly affected him. A ferious friend told him, after he was recovered, that when she was praying in his behalf, thefe words, "I will fatisfy him with long life, and I will fhew him my falvation," were fo impreffed by God upon her heart, that he was perfectly eafy under all his diftrefs. Deprived of his parents, he was obliged to leave a fmail re-ligious family, and to enter into another; this, he intimates, was attended with much practical apoftacy from God, his former attainments were loft, and religious exercifes often omitted; but he used to please himself, by making up the number in one day, in which he had been deficient on another.

After many changes in the frame of his heart, Providence again afflicted him with a fever, in the 19th year of his age, which, in fome degree, awakened his concern about eternal falvation. After his recovery, at a facramental occafion at Abernethy, he heard a fermon on John vi. 64. "There are fome of you that believe not;" which, though delivered by one who was reckoned a general preacher, fo pierced his confcience, as if almost every fentence had been directed to none but himself, and it made him conclude he was one of the greatest unbeliev

ers in the world; his foul was thrown into a fort of agony, and he was made to look on all his former experiences as effects of the common operations of the Holy : Ghoft. In this manner he viewed them for many years afterwards, till God at laft fhewed him that he was wrong in throwing aside all his attainment, as having nothing really gracious in them.

Next day, he heard a fermon by the late Rev. Mr Gibb of Edinburgh, on Ifa. liii. 4. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our forrows." This enlightened and melted his heart in a manner he never before felt; he was made, as a poor loft finner, to effay appropriating the Lord Jefus as having done all for him, and as wholly made over to him in the gospel, as the free gift of God, and as his all-fufficient Saviour, answerable for all his folly, ignorance, guilt, filthiness, flavery, and mifery. Through this, and other ordinances, the pleafure he had enjoyed in former years was not only remarkably returned, but he attained far clearer views of the freedom of God's grace, and the exercise of taking hold of, and pleading the promises of the gospel. Not much above a year after this, he was exercifed with a new trial of above five years continuance. In confequence of his anxious pursuit after learning, and efpecially by the gracious affiftance of God, he had acquired a very confiderable acquaintance with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and was refolving to use this in the fervice of our Lord Jefus, if he fhould open a regular door. His acquiring thefe languages without a master, except for one month, occafioned his obtaining the favour of fome, and the envy of others; by the latter it was reprefented

prefented that he got his learning by fome collufion with Satan. This groundless, foolish calumny, spread far and wide, and was exceedingly diftreffing to him; however, God was gracious, and he enjoyed remarkable mixtures of mercy with affliction. At the beginning of the trial, these words, "the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day time, and his fong fhall be with me in the night," &c. were ever fweet to his foul.

The members of the praying fociety to which he belonged continued his fteady friends, and were more kind to him now than before His acquaintance with the world being extended, many others manifefted remarkable fympathy; but his chief fupport were the words of truth which the Lord enabled him to believe. At facramental occafions at Dunfermline, Burntifland, and Glasgow, he marvelloufly refreshed his foul, and made thefe years the most pleasant ever he had on earth.

Discourses on these texts, Heb. x. 37. "Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come;" Ezek. xxxvii. 12. "Behold, O my people! I will open your graves;" Pfal. xci. 2. "I will fay of the Lord, he is my refuge;" and a meditation on Pfal. v. 1. "But I will come into thy houfe, in the multitude of thy mercy," were peculiarly refreshing. Meanwhile, the Lord, by means of this reproach, led him to ponder his own heart and way; this, with other confiderations, excited him to submit to his lot, and kept him from expofing his flanderers. Micah's words much affected his heart, chap. vii. 8.-10. "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy! though I fall I fhall arife; when I fit in darkness the Lord will be a light unto me." He alfo thought that the fting which

he had found in his learning tended to keep him, in fome measure, humble under what he had attained, and that the reproaches he then met with made him lefs credulous of what he heard charged on others; on thefe accounts, he looked on that affliction as a kind Providence to him. By a wonderful variety of difpenfations, the Lord opened his way for getting fome regular inftruction in philofophy and divinity; the laft he ftudied under Meffis E. Erfkine and James Fisher, and was licensed to preach the gospel by the Affociate Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1750. He was much affected, that, about the fame time, if not the fame night, on which he was licenfed, his primary calumniator was excommunicated by his fupporters: on this circumftance he made the following reflection; Behold, O my foul! the goodness and purity of God, towards him severity, and towards me (perhaps ten thousand times worfe) goodnefs. Let me never be high minded, but fear.

On the morning before he was licensed, that awful text was impreffed upon his mind, Ifa. vi. 9, 10. “And he faid, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and fee ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their cars heavy, and fhut their eyes; left they fee with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." He had foon two competing calls for him; one from Stow, and the other from Haddington; which laft was preferred; and he was ordained there in 1751 After being ordained, the apparent little fuccefs of his miniftry lay heavy on his heart; he apprehended the above fcripture

too

too evidently fulfilled in his ministry. Under the influence of the above impreffion, he had frequently a defire to be removed by death, from being (as he thought) a plague to his poor congregation; however, when the comfort of the gospel revived him, he confidered this wish as his folly, and begged of the Lord, that, if it was not for his glory to remove him by death, he would make him more fuccefsful. As to transportations, he never had a good opinion of any of them, and looked on it in fo far a mercy that his congregation was small. The Affociate Synod chofe him as profeffor of divinity in 1768, upon the death of Mr John. Swanfton of Kinrofs; he laboured diligently and unwearied in this office, and in that of his ministry, till his death, and was hardly ever interrupted by weakness or difeafe. In preaching the gospel, his own foul was often much refreshed; but none of his fermons were more fweet to him than thofe on the following texts, Pfal. exlii. 7. "Bring my foul out of prifon;" Ifa. xliv. 5. "One shall fay I am the Lord's ;" chap xlvi. 5.

"Even

to old age," chap. Ix. 20. "The days of the mourning fhall be ended;" 1 Tim. i. 15, 16. "This is a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation;" Johri xi. 28. "The Mafter is come, and calleth for thee;" Rev. iii. 21. "To him that overcometh will I grant to fit with me on my throne." We may finish this narrative with his own grateful and felf-denied reflections; "Now, after near forty years preaching of Christ, and his great and fweet falvation, I think I would rather beg my bread all the labouring days of the week, for one opportunity of publishing the gospel on the Sabbath to

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