MEMOIRS OP PERIOD IX.' smart, and of an uncommon atfurance ; felf-conceited, and cen. furious to a pitch, ufing an indecent freedom both with church and ltate. There were three parties in the place. One of dif - f`ekters, followers of Mr John Macmillan, a confiderable number ; who have been all along unto- this day a dead weight on my mi- rrittry in the place ; though not fa great new, by far, as in former years. Another was an heritor in the parith, with two èlders dependents of. his. He himfelf deferted the, ordinances, for a- bout the fpace of the firft ten years,,viz. till the affair of Clofe- burn. One of the elders having heard a little while, went off for altogether to the diffenters. The other, for oughtI know, never heard me after I was fettled among them. The thirdwas the congregation"of my hearers, under the difadvantage of what influence thefe two parties could have upon them. Their appe. tite for the ordinances I did not find to be sharpened by the long fatf they had got, for about the fpace of four years. Wherefore, loon perceiving the little value they had for occafions of hearing the gofpel, and having called a meeting for bufinefs, on a week- . clay, Aug. 15?. I preached to them, that day, the fenfe I had of their cafe, from If. xliii. 22. " Thou haft been weary of me, O Ifiael." I plainly faw, that a brother, -who, at the fynod which tranfported me, was overheard to bid-let me go, I would get preaching my fill there, was far out. On the contrary, I be- hoved to bid farewell to a pleafant part ofmy exercife of that na- ture before; and to haveit miferably flighted and defpifed, where occaliorrally I was called to it. And for the Sabbaths fermons, they were but coldly enough received ; but remarkable was the pricking up of ears, when any thing relative to the public fell in; . which was a wounding obferve to me. . To the breeding and cherilhing of this difp'oítion among them, feveral things concurred. There being little knowledge ofreligion among them, till the time of confufion and perfecution ; fo that John.Andifon in Gamefcleugh told me of a time, when there was not a Bible in the church, but the rninifter's, his father's, arid another's; they drank in the principles of Prefbytery in the greatett height, with the principles of Chriftianity. The dif (enters were in great reputation among them, and continually buzzing in their ears fomething- to the difparagement of the church and the minittry. Moreover, the union with England, which they were violently fet againtt, tryfted with my fettling among thern,,and brought in an unacceptable change of the Rate ofaffairs. And finally, they lived alone. A proleffion of religiongenerally obtained among them, through the preaching of the perfecuted minifters in and about the place. Before the Revolution, they were generally made Prefbyterians praying perlons, and feveral of them, I believe, good Chriftians. Often I pbferved, that I had never feen in a country-kirk more Bibles than appeared in ours ; nor more perlons giving in to the Sabbaths collection for the poor. And indeed theywere and'3':
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