168G. MR THOMAS BOSTON. 9 company could hardly be miffed ; and with them fomething to be heard, efpecially in the returning, that was for edification, to which I liftened ; but in the winter, fometimesit was my lot to go alone, without fó much as the benefit of a horfe to carry me through Blackadder water, the wading whereof in (harp frofty weather I very well remember. But fuch things were then eafy, for the benefit of the word, which came with power. The fchooldoor's fon having, in his childifh folly, put a pipe- (topple in each of' his noftrils,. I defigning to pull them out, hap. pened fo to put themup that he bled. Whereupon his father, sin great wrath, upbraided me ; and particularly fáid, Is that what you learned at Revelaw ? which cut me to the heart, find- ing religion to-fuf}er by me. In there days I had a great glowing of affeétions in religion, even to a zeal for fuffering in the caufe of it, which 1 amvery fore was not according to knowledge ; but I was ready to think, as Zebedee's children faid, Matth. xx. 12. " We are able." I was raw and unexperienced, had much weaknefs and ignorance, and much of a legal difpofition and way, then, and for a good time after, undi('cerued. Howbeit I would fain hope, there was, under a heap of rubbifh of that kind, " fóne good thing toward " the God of Ifrael" wrought in me. Sure I am, I was in good earneft concerned for a faving intereft in Jefus Chrift ; my foul went out after him, and the place ofhis feet was glorious in mine eyes. Having read of the fealing of the tribes, Rev. vii. Satan wove a fnare for me out of it, viz. That the whole number of the &ót, or thofe who were to he faved, was already made úp ; and therefore therewas no room for me. How that fnare was broken, I do not remember ; but thereby one may fee, what eafy work Satan, brooding on ignorance, bath to'hatch things which may perplex and keep the party from Chrift. At that time there was another boy at the fchool, Thomas Trotter of Catchilraw, whofe heart the Lord had alfb touched : and there came to the fchool a third, one Patrick Gillies, a ferions lad, and elder than either of us ; but the fon of a father and mo- ther, ignorant and carnal to a pitch ; which made the grace of God in him the more remarkable: Upon his motion, we three met frequently in a chamber in my father's houfe, for prayer, read- ing the fcriptures, and fpiritual conference ; whereby we liad fome advantage, both in point of knowledge and tendernefs. It was remarkable concerning the fáid Thomas,, that being taken to the firft Prefbyterian meeting that was in the country after the liberty ; ,where I fuppofe, the worthy and famous Mr James Webfter, afterwards a minifter in Edinburgh, preached ; he, upon his return from it, giving an account in the fchoolconcerning his being there, ridiculed the Whigs ; the which I, who neverthe- lefs was not there, was very forry for, on no other account, I reckon, but that my father was one of that fort of people. But
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